Trouble Making Princess
by GracefullySlick
Summary: Tori Lockhart always thought she could get away with whatever she wanted, but when she gets sent to an until now all-male military program she realises she thought wrong.Read and review as you wish.Rated T to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

Assembly at Winston Girls High School, Virginia was an average, mostly boring affair just like at other schools.

Students sat in lines together with the rest of their classes, teachers stood up, looking around for any talkers, fiddlers or turners and the speakers stood at the front podium either reading their lines nervously or standing straight-postured waiting for their turn to speak.

Twelfth grade student Tori Lockhart sat slumped in her chair, looking as though if she slid any lower she'd fall right off. With her arms crossed she looked as though she was about to fall asleep.

Along with the other students around her Tori found it all very boring until she saw the principal had been called forward to speak.

Watching Principal Hardy, Tori kept a close eye, well as close as possible from where she was sitting, on the microphone held in the principal's hand.

Hardy was known throughout the school as being an extremely hygienic person, so much so she found that everything she used couldn't be touched by anyone's hands but her own.

She never let others touch her stationary, computer, desk, books and even the door if they hadn't washed their hands or even, at times, worn gloves. If someone did happen to touch Hardy's stuff with unwashed hands there would be dire consequences for that certain person.

Tori found that out the hard way when she grabbed a book off of Hardy's book shelf while Tori was waiting for the principal to sign her detention slip.

Hardy freaked and doubled Tori's detention to two months. As most of the people in her year know, Tori was not the type of person to forget something like that and she also never seemed to care about the consequences of her actions, unfortunately for Hardy, she found that out the hard way. Hardy has had paintballs thrown at her, her doorknob slightly electrified, her office trashed; all Tori's doings, but Hardy hadn't let the rest of the school know about this, she didn't want the whole school knowing how she couldn't handle one student. This brings us back to the microphone.

As Hardy held up her very own sanitised microphone to her mouth she spoke to the whole school about the 'safety in wearing school uniform' and as the rest of the student body slumped around her Tori seemed way too interested in what Hardy had to say.

When Hardy got to the point of 'why people like an organised environment' she stopped suddenly and at the same time Tori bolted right up in her seat as though watching a dramatic touchdown in a football game.

Everyone else sat up too as the principal's screeches could be heard slightly through the speakers and it took a while for them all to realise what was happening.

The principal's lips had become stuck to the mouth piece of the microphone and before she knew it Tori let out a yell of victory out to the crowd.

Everyone turned to look at Tori who quickly slid back onto her chair, unnecessarily pretending she hadn't done anything wrong.

It took about fifteen minutes for the principal's lips to be pried apart from the microphone and afterwards everyone, except for Tori, had been sent to class.

Without the use of a microphone, Hardy screamed out across the hall.

"Tori Lockhart! My… office… now!" She bellowed and Tori almost ran to the principal's office, finding that it was not the time to be slow.

'How much trouble could I be in?' Tori thought as she waited outside the office. The principal's only payback for these types of instances was a detention, but Tori felt as though Hardy was bottling up something.

All thoughts were erased from Tori's mind as she heard the sound of clicking heels coming her way. Her back wrenched up as she leant against the wall just near the doorway.

As soon as Hardy came into view she stopped as she eyed Tori.

After slamming the door open quickly Hardy squinted her eyes crossly at Tori and quickly yelped, "In." After which Tori obliged and stepped into the all too familiar principal's office.

"Sit." Said the principal with the same pitch in her voice as before and Tori sat on one of the two leather seats in front of the desk.

The principal didn't speak for about five minutes, as she started rifling through the neat piles of papers on her desk, when suddenly the phone rang.

Hardy picked the phone up straight away to answer it, speaking in a completely different tone of voice from the one she used previously.

"Hello, Principal Hardy of Winston Girls High School speaking." She droned through the phone and Tori could faintly hear a male voice babbling through the other end.

"Good to know. I'll tell her." Hardy looked up at Tori when she said that. "Goodbye." She hung up the phone and looked at Tori with what appeared to be the angriest face she could master.

"That was your father." Hardy explained of the telephone call.

"What did hewant?" Tori asked starting to become nervous, every time her father got involved in her school life it always turned out bad; in fact, he is the reason Tori was sent to an all girls school.

"The school messaged him to call, after that little _stunt _you pulled." Hardy informed. "He's on his way here."

Tori rolled her eyes frustratingly, knowing that her father coming to the school wasn't going to be a good thing.

"I've had enough!" Hardy hissed suddenly. "I hope you're happy." She indicated to Tori who just shrugged. "Now the entire school must think I can't handle _one silly little girl_."

"I'm seventeen!" Tori interrupted, angry at the notion that she was a little girl.

"Well start acting like it! Grow-up for goodness sake!"

"This coming from an old woman who won't let anyone touch her junk unless they're wearing gloves!"

"It's called cleanliness. Who knows how many germs you little tarts are carrying around this school?"

"Compared to a sixty year old cat lady." Tori jabbed, forgetting that she was talking to the school principal and letting everything out.

"Enough!" Hardy tried to finalise the argument, seemingly insulted by Tori's last statement. "When I was your age I knew exactly how to treat my elders. It's called respect young lady and hopefully when your father gets here we'll sort out a way to teach you that respect."

Tori didn't like the sound of that last bit and remained silent as she witnessed Hardy rifle through her file.

"It says here you were suspended at least six times at your old school." Hardy read out to Tori, who just shrugged her shoulders again not caring about that piece of information. "Do you not have any idea how to control yourself?"

Tori didn't know what to say to that comment. All she knew was those six suspensions were the reason she was in this place.

Just after Tori came up with a reply Hardy's intercom buzzed and a female voice spoke through it.

"Principal Hardy, Mr Lockhart is here to see you." The woman said and Tori's back tensed up again when she realised her dad was about to walk through the door.

"Send him right in." Answered Hardy, unable to hide the satisfaction on her face, and the office remained silent for less than a minute when someone banged on the door and the principal got up and opened the door to reveal a tall, greying man, Tori's father.

Warren Lockhart walked in without a word until his eyes made their way to a guilty and curious looking Tori.

"What did she do this time?" Mr Lockhart asked, the expression on his face looking nothing but serious.

"Your daughter super-glued my lips to my own microphone in front of the entire school." The principal said and Mr Lockhart looked back at his daughter, unsurprisingly unamused.

"But it's not just that…" Hardy continued and Tori's father looked back at her, "from the first day she stepped in this school she has caused me and a few of her teachers, as reported to me, nothing but grief. From rifling unallowed through my books to having paintballs thrown in my direction to even having the doorknob to my office electrified."

Mr Lockhart's eyes widened at the last part. Even he was unaware that his daughter was capable of such things. Tori slumped in her chair when her father turned to look at her disappointingly.

"I suggest you take control of your daughter Mr Lockhart or she'll have a criminal record under her name." Mr Lockhart seemed as though he had already made that decision for himself.

"I completely agree with you." He assured his daughter's principal. Tori gritted her teeth at the fact that her father was taking her enemy's side, even if the enemy was slightly right. "After sending her here in the first place I thought she would've learnt her lesson."

"What are you saying dad?" Tori asked feeling more worried by the minute.

"I'm saying you should just give up school if you really don't want to be here." Those words burned Tori like a hot iron and she could tell by the look in her father's eyes that she was a disappointment.

"But I can't leave school if I want to be a lawyer…"

"Ha!" Hardy let out a cold laugh as though Tori was joking. "You a lawyer?"

"My grades are high enough." Tori assured, feeling insulted.

"Yes, but unless you change your attitude college is out of the question." The principal was apparently enjoying the fact that she was getting the upper-hand over Tori.

"Exactly," Mr Lockhart continued to agree with what the principal had to say.

"I can't change how I am just like that." Said Tori crossing her arms.

"If you _wanted _to you could." Her father barked, disbelieving that Tori would want to change the way she is.

"I have an idea." Said the principal and both Lockharts turned to face her. "I have a friend who's a principal at a school which runs a… _program_ for students. It might help her." Tori could tell the principal was being slightly misleading in the way she said the word _program_. She also didn't like hearing the words 'help her' as it felt as though they wanted her to go see a psychiatrist.

"She'll do it." Mr Lockhart answered before Tori could contemplate an answer.

"Very well. I'll organise everything myself." Hardy said, obviously happy to be ridding her school of Tori.

"But… wait!" Tori screeched as he dad got up off of his seat and walked out the door.

"No!" Hollered her father as she followed him out. "I've had enough Tori. Your principal was right, anymore of these stunts and you'll be locked up in juvenile detention. It's either this or I'm pulling you out of school." He finished and walked away before Tori could speak for herself.


	2. Chapter 2

A week after the little incident between Tori and the principal occurred; arrangements had been made for Tori to be placed in the school which Hardy had told Tori and her father about until she can get her act together.

She had been told a place was being held for her in the program, as Principal Hardy liked to call it, at Madison Preparatory School and that the school was a boarding school, and so Tori already didn't like it, she hated school enough without having to sleep there.

After packing all her things and saying goodbye to her friends Tori was immediately sent to her father's car and they were on their way to the school. Mr Lockhart said he didn't want to waste the school's time by showing up late.

Though the scenery during the long ride was very pretty, Tori could care less as she knew her life was being changed for her, again.

*

The drive took about four hours when they finally arrived at the high-class looking school.

'Another rich, snobby looking school' Tori thought, rolling her eyes as the car made its way through the entrance and up the drive way.

Much to her dismay the whole school was clad in uniform, just like her last school. The uniforms looked a bit better, white shirt and navy blue skirt, but Tori didn't like the conformity that uniform placed students in.

Tori jumped out of her trance as she heard the wheels of her father's four-wheeled drive screech to a halt.

After taking a deep breath, Tori stepped out of the car.

She felt very out of place amongst the uniformed students in her black button-up shirt and denim shorts, as well as a pair of Nike runners.

Sweeping her long brown hair impatiently out of her face she grabbed her bags out of the boot of the car and waited for her father to grab the rest.

When they grabbed everything Mr Lockhart told Tori to follow him to find the principal's office.

On walking into the school Tori saw that it was a well-polished looking place. The halls were glistening with the type of cleanliness Hardy would die for and there was no student in sight, as they were most probably still in class, which was another thing that Hardy would've enjoyed as Winston had one of the biggest truant records for a single-gender school.

In the middle of the hall was a trophy case with two trophies in it, which Tori didn't get to see as her father nagged at her to keep following him.

After going in circles around the school about two times the Lockharts finally found the principal's office.

Mr Lockhart knocked on the door after which came out a faint "come in" from inside the office.

The Lockharts stepped into an office that seemed completely out of place compared to the rest of the school and would have been far from the tastes of Principal Hardy. It was swarming with harmless flying insects such as butterflies and moths.

At the desk sat the man who Tori guessed to be the principal, he looked very aged and seasoned. He was looking at a butterfly through a magnifying glass the size of Tori's fist.

"Hello. I'm Principal Phillips." The man introduced himself, with a weird airiness that somehow made him seem delightful. Tori wondered how that man could have gotten along well with a witch like Principal Hardy.

"Hi. I'm Mr Lockhart, this is my daughter Tori." Mr Lockhart spoke for both he and his daughter the way he always did.

"Oh, you're the trouble making princess?" Phillips indicated to Tori, who was taken back at what he called her. "That's what Principal Hardy called you through the phone." Answered Phillips, after noticing the confused expression on Tori's face.

"Um…" Tori hesitated, not knowing what to think of that. "Anyway, could you just tell me what's going on?"

"I'll let Major Payne explain everything to you." Phillips said and leaned towards his microphone.

"Miss Walburn, please report to the principal's office immediately." Phillips spoke through the school.

After about two minutes of silence a gentle knock sounded on the door and it was opened to reveal a young looking woman with dark skin.

"You wanted to see me Principal Phillips?" She asked as though she were a student.

"Uh, yes. Could you please escort Miss Lockhart and her father to Major Payne's office?" The principal asked and it now seemed Miss Walburn's turn to look surprised.

"Um, yeah. Follow me." She said to the Lockharts, who stepped out of the office and followed her silently.

As the were walking down and through the many hallways, Miss Walburn kept looking back at Tori curiously and with a somewhat worried expression as she was leading the way to Major Payne's office.

Tori had a bad feeling about the fact that the school had a Major.

They were led to the far side of the building and stopped at a door with the words 'Major B. Payne' inscribed on a small plaque.

Miss Walburn rapped at the door and an inaudible "its open" could be heard from within, so Walburn opened the entrance.

Walking in Tori saw a dark-skinned, bold man sitting at the reading a few papers that were scattered over his desk.

"Major, this is Tori Lockhart." Walburn introduced with an expressionless tone in her voice and she seemed to be staring the man down as though waiting for a reaction.

"Oh…" Payne hesitated, looking at Walburn as though he was trying to gain a bit of support, "you know… we've only ever had males participate in the military program at this school."

Tori's eyelids heightened as high as they would possibly go.

"You've sent me to do a military program?" She scoffed angrily at her father, who just shrugged.

"I didn't know." Mr Lockhart tried to defend himself, as though this were a common mistake. "But… if it'll help."

"Oh, it'll help." Laughed Payne, holding up one of the papers that he had been reading, which Tori could now see had her name written in bold at the top. "I just don't know if she'll… fit it…"

"Probably not, so I should just leave…" Tori interrupted and she made a move to the door when her father grabbed her arm.

"She'll stay." Mr Lockhart said pulling Tori back to where she was standing before she moved.

"She'll be staying in the barracks…" Payne started when Tori interrupted again.

"Barracks? I'm not staying in some sort tin shed!"

"Enough complaining!" Said Mr Lockhart becoming annoyed.

"It's not that bad." Teased Payne. "To sweeten the deal I'll give you your own change room to give you a little privacy." He offered, noticeably enjoying the fact that Tori's diva-like attitude was being shoved back in her face.

"Fine." Huffed Tori, not believing what she had just said, but though it would be better than being kicked out of school, in the long run at least.

*

The junior cadets had been told to meet Major Payne in the barracks as he had to make an announcement.

Alex Stone had a feeling it was something big, as that's the only reason they were ever called to meet Payne as a group.

"I reckon it's a new cadet." Contemplated Wuliger. "Probably another disabled cadet or something."

"Might be another fat pig like Heathcoat." Joked Deak, much to the annoyance of Heathcoat, when the door sounded open and in stepped Payne, a man the cadets have never seen before and someone, who Alex thought at least, was far from a fat pig.

A young, pretty brunette girl, who looked about the same age as Alex, had stepped in behind the adults.

After longer than a moment, Alex turned around at the other cadets to see that they were all staring at the girl as well.

"We have a new… cadet in our midst," Payne struggled to make his announcement, "this here is Tori Lockhart." He indicated to the girl, who inverted her eyes straight to the ground when she was introduced.

After a shocked silence, some of the cadets started arguing amongst themselves about having a female in the squad.

"We'll be a laughing stock."

"She'll fold as soon as she starts."

"She won't last."

All those complaints and arrogant comments continued until Payne yelled for everyone to cease their talking and face his way.

"Now, she may be a little different, but that doesn't mean that she has to be treated any differently." He said and more than half the squad rolled their eyes.

Alex surprisingly found himself not caring that the squad now had a girl; he also found that he couldn't stop staring at her, but was taken out of his trance when Payne called out his name.

"Stone!" Payne yelled and Alex faced his way.

Tori finally looked up at her eyes met with Alex's as he walked forwards, but when the strange man caught her she quickly looked back down with a smirk on her face.

"Tori Lockhart this is Alex Stone, he's the captain of the squad." Payne introduced both teenagers, who both just smiled at each other, Tori looking away as she smiled.

"Mr Lockhart," Payne turned to the bolding man, who Alex had just realised must be Tori's father. "You may leave those bags here."

Mr Lockhart just nodded and looked like he wanted to say goodbye to Tori.

"Later Tori," He said, walking to the door and Tori just flicked a wave to him angrily.

Alex could tell that Tori really didn't want to be at Madison as she turned to the squad looking worried.

"Hello." She huffed and then rolled her eyes to herself, giving the boys an expression that plainly said she didn't want to be there.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapt. 3**_

While unpacking her things into a trunk at the foot of her bed, Tori felt all eyes burning into her, but she didn't turn around. She knew, from the moment she stepped foot in the door of the tin shed-like cabin, that she was unwelcome.

As she unpacked her socks Tori could hear whispers and murmurs buzzing behind her, most probably louder than intended.

"This is probably just a joke or something." Whispered a wheezy, sickly sounding voice.

"Yeah, maybe. It could be a test, see how we can cope." Spoke a more confident voice.

Tori just rolled her eyes at these comments. Her cheeks turned a light pink when she got to the underwear and she quickly took the whole bunch out and shoved it into the trunk, not caring about neatness.

"Do you think Payne would do something like this as a joke?" Said another hushed voice.

Getting agitated at these comments Tori grunted softly and then spun around on the spot to face all of the boys. "This isn't a joke or a test," she said, "so you should erase those hopes."

Tori watched as each male cadet rolled their eyes one-by-one in a sort of domino effect, looking at each other with annoyed expressions on their faces. All of a sudden a tall, dark-skinned boy stepped forward.

"You won't survive here." He said, and Tori realised he was the speaker with the confident voice. "A broken nail and you'll be out of here."

"It's not like I actually want to be here." Said Tori indignantly. "And besides, _just _because I'm a girl, doesn't mean I'm prissy or something."

"You'll still be weaker than the rest of us." The boy insulted. "You're not going to last very long."

"Why don't you come closer and say that?" Tori dared, slamming her duffle onto the ground.

The boy stepped closer to try and make himself appear a lot taller when a different voice spoke.

"Whoa!" The cadet, who was introduced to Tori as Alex Stone, intercepted, breaking up the almost-fight. "Don't do anything you'll regret Deak."

"Don't worry; she wouldn't have the guts to do anything." Said the boy presumed to be Deak with a smirk flickering on his face as he looked down at Tori.

"That's it!" Tori screeched, not taking anymore insults, and bolted for him, until Alex grabbed her arms to hold her back. "No! Let me go! I wanna show him how _weak _I am."

"Enough!" Yelled a voice at the door. Alex let go of Tori who turned to see Major Payne had entered the building and she stood still on the spot, trying to look as angelic as she could manage.

"What's going on?" He asked looking from Deak to Tori and back again.

"Nothing," Deak lied, leaving Tori to roll her eyes.

"It didn't look like nothing." Said Payne. "What did I say before, about not treating this girl differently?"

"I know, but…" Deak mumbled until Payne interrupted.

"Listen," he huffed, "I know this is gonna be hard to get used to, but if gotta at least try. Otherwise you're gonna annoy the hell outta all of us."

Tori gave Deak a victorious, smug look as she stood behind Payne.

"If I see anymore of this, from any of you," Payne pointed to the rest of the cadets, including Tori, who gave an exasperated gasp when he indicated to her, "I won't be happy and most of you know the consequences when I'm in a bad mood."

Payne finalised his speech and walked out, allowing the cadets the opportunity to look back at Tori as though she had just murdered someone.

"Hope you enjoyed that while it lasted, princess." Said Deak as he walked past Tori, keeping his eyes on her as he past and he made his way outside. The other cadets then followed suite, leaving Tori and Alex alone.

"I'm sorry about them." Alex apologised to Tori. "They're just not used to having a female on the squad."

"Including you?" Tori asked scathingly. "I shouldn't be here." She said more to herself than anyone else, louder than she had intended.

Alex looked at Tori for a moment and suddenly let out a humourless laugh, "so, you think you're too good for us, is that it?" He asked, seemingly taking Tori's last comment the wrong way. Tori narrowed her eyebrows, not knowing what to say.

Alex laughed again, his smile not reaching his eyes just like before, and he walked out of the building after the other boys.

Tori kept her eyes on the invisible path Alex left for a moment and then looked up at the roof in frustration. "Boys," she grunted and she went back to unpacking her belongings.

*

Next morning, early six o'clock, Tori was woken up. She was told to get dressed into her uniform and meet the squad down at the yard at the back of the school.

The clothes that Tori had been provided appeared absolutely ridiculous on Tori.

The all green outfit was about two sizes too big for Tori; the kaki coloured shirt was baggy enough to look like a dress and the camouflage cargo pants were so long that Tori kept tripping over the hem of the legs.

After tying the bottom of the shirt to make it tighter, rolling up the hems of the pants a countless amount of times and putting on her own pair of Nike runners, Tori made her way down to the back of the school.

When she got to the meeting point Tori saw that the cadets were all standing in a straight line, with their hands placed behind their backs. They all looked as though they hadn't noticed she was there.

Tori stood on the spot, a few feet away from the line, staring around the area for any sign of Payne, who didn't seem to be there yet.

"You took your time, didn't you?" Payne asked rhetorically, out of nowhere, startling Tori.

"Sorry," apologised Tori, having no idea of what else to say.

"What the hell d'you do with your uniform?" Payne looked Tori up and down, disallowance written all over his facial expression.

"You gave me uniform that's about two sizes too big." Explained Tori, untying her shirt to show him how big it was.

"I'll get a smaller size for you, when I have time. Now get into line." Payne cocked his head at the line on male cadets.

"Where?" Tori tried to find a place in the line, then looked back at Payne, who had an expression on his face that said 'ask again, see what happens,' so Tori quickly stepped towards the end of the line, next to where a gangly, nervous looking boy stood.

'This is going to be a long day,' though Tori rubbing her temples with her left hand thumb and forefinger.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapt. 4**_

"_The _Virginian Military Games are in eight weeks!" Major Payne paced slowly up and down infront of the straight line of cadets.

"Eight weeks may seem like a long time, but don't be fooled. The time is closer than you think."

Tori had no idea what the Virginian Military Games were and, honestly, she could hardly care. She kept her eyes at her feet, hoping that Payne wouldn't catch the look of confusion on her face.

"You all should know what this means," Payne stopped pacing and stood at the centre of the line. "You'll be training harder and harder until your body aches so badly that each time you move you might even hear your muscles crying to mamma! He he he."

Hearing this, Tori let out a grunt louder than she intended and Payne's head shot straight towards her, looking like a dog that had just spotted a rabbit. Tori quickly clasped her hands over her mouth.

Payne walked slowly, hands held behind his back, in Tori's direction without speaking a word. The eyes of each cadet followed Payne with anticipation. When he stood a foot away from Tori, Payne bent down to her height and looked her straight in the eyes.

"Is this gonna be an inconvenience for you?" Payne asked, his voice curiously calm.

Tori had an urge to say yes until she saw the expressions on the faces of the other cadets, all waiting to hear her say that exact three letter word.

"No," she answered, shaking her head quickly. "I just… I've never done anything like this. I wouldn't be fit enough." Tori tried to get herself out of the workouts.

"Well…" Payne paused for a second; looking somewhat maniacal, "let's get you toughened up then."

"What?" Tori narrowed her eyebrows.

"I want three laps around this field." Payne said out of nowhere.

"Excuse me?!" Tori scoffed.

"_Four_ laps!" Yelled Payne.

Tori rolled her eyes and started to jog around the oval yard.

'This is so humiliating,' Tori thought.

"Faster! No slacking off!" Payne continued to bark out orders as Tori ran around the oval.

Just one lap done and Tori was already exhausted, but Payne wouldn't let her stop, or even slow down. Somehow he watched her from the corner of his eye while giving orders to the other cadets.

As she finally came to the start of her third lap Tori started to tread on the unravelled leg of her pants. Trying, foolishly, to fold the leg back up, while she was still running, Tori leaned in too far forward and tripped, face planting into a small mud puddle.

As the boys looked over and stifled there laughs, Tori pulled her face up, spitting the watery mud from her mouth.

Tori got up, careful not to slip again. Wiping the mud off of her face as she felt it slowly drying, Tori walked over to Payne trying to appear as dignified as she could.

After ordering the cadets to do push ups Payne turned to Tori, who could've sworn she saw Payne's mouth twitch.

Taking a deep breath, Tori struggled to speak as she felt like she was about to cry. "M-may I go have a shower?" she asked starting to shiver as the breeze came into contact with the water on her skin.

Payne nodded and Tori turned and paced towards the barracks.

Leaving her clothes on, Tori turned on the water and jumped in, not realising that only the cold water worked.

Screaming, she stepped out and then jumped back in, trying to ignore the bone chilling temperature.

Seeing the mud from her clothes ran into the drain and dirty the floor of the shower, Tori thought she was clean enough and turned the water off.

After, uselessly, patting herself with a towel, Tori walked out of the shower to see the boys had gotten back.

The boys let their laughs out as Tori's clothes made loud sloshing sounds when she moved. Tori let out a sarcastic laugh before moving towards her trunk. Opening the lid, Tori huffed when she remembered that the uniform she had on was the only one she had at the moment.

From the corner of her eye, Tori saw one of the younger cadets say something to Alex, who cracked up laughing as he looked in her direction.

Not able to take it anymore, Tori stepped slowly towards Alex, stopping just centimetres from him.

"You think this is real funny, huh?" She asked with a humourless smirk on her face. Alex tried to hold in a laugh as he nodded.

Tori turned to face his bed and, in one swift movement, took off her still soaked shirt, revealing a white bra underneath. Alex's eyes, as well as the eyes of every other cadet in the room, widened before he realised what she was doing.

Tori held her still soaked shirt over his bed and twisted it, wringing out the water, leaving a big puddle on the thin sheet.

Alex let out a noise that sounded like a growl. He looked like a goldfish as he tried to think of something to say. Tori let out a giggle when she saw the expression on his face.

"Who's laughing now?" Tori said before putting her shirt back on and turning to leave. Deak stood in her way as she tried to move.

Knowing he wouldn't move, Tori shook her head like a wet dog, spraying the water from her wet hair all over Deak. She didn't stop until he moved out of the way. When he finally stepped out of the way Tori walked outside.

She stood at the door until she heard the boys making their way out. Hearing their steps towards the door, Tori ran to the field where it looked like there was no one there.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapt. 5 **_

Tori ignored the strange looks from students as she continued to walk. She stopped walking when she saw a group of people on the field. A team of soccer players were out on the green, kicking a ball around in structured order.

She saw people sat on a bench as they watched the team practise. Tori walked towards them and sat down.

Tori had always loved soccer. She played when she was back at Winston. She placed her head in her hands and sighed when she realised she was going to miss out on soccer during her final year of schooling.

As she continued watching the boys go at it, Tori thought how moving to a different school might not be such a bad thing after all. At least there are boys for her to perve at.

Tori's attention was torn away from the soccer players when the bell rang for the next period, in which Tor had an actual lesson. She got up and started to walk towards the main building.

"Heads!" Someone yelled when Tori turned towards the building. Tori spun on the spot to see what was going on at about the same time a ball came hurling towards her face.

After having the ball crash into her face, Tori fell with both pain and surprise. Feeling her nose to make sure it hadn't broken, Tori picked herself up into a seating position.

"Sorry!" A male voice yelled from far away.

Tori became speechless when a good looking boy stepped up to her. He had short, dark brown hair and olive coloured skin. He had what looked like the goalie uniform on. He put out his hand to help Tori up. She took his hand and got pulled up onto her feet.

"You all right?" He asked with a handsome smirk on his face.

After seconds of getting lost in his chocolate coloured eyes Tori nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." She answered. Running her hands through her hair, Tori realised she was still a mess when she felt her wet hair. "Surprisingly, this isn't the worst thing that's happened to me today."

The boy laughed. "You look like you've had a rough day." He pointed out the obvious. "You new here?" He asked.

"Yes. I'm Tori." Tori, finding it hard not to smile, put her hand out.

"Jeremy." He introduced himself taking Tori's hand.

"Jeremy!" Called one of the boys on the field. The players looked like they were waiting for him. "Come help pack up!" A blonde boy yelled.

"Be seeing you around." Jeremy said as a sort of statement.

"Yeah." Tori bit her lip as he ran towards his teammates. After shaking the weird thoughts out of her head Tori walked back to her barracks to get changed.

*

Tori was given the normal school uniform, white shirt and blue skirt, rather than what the boys had to wear, when they're not doing drills, as all the JROTC uniforms were made specifically for each cadet. Tori hoped she wouldn't be at the school long enough for her own uniform to be made.

When she finished getting changed and dried her hair properly, Tori grabbed her bag and made her way to her allocated classroom for chemistry.

Squeezing through the crowd in the hall way, Tori struggled to find her classroom. Her height wasn't helping as she tried to look over the heads of other students and teachers.

Finally, Tori could see an inscription on the door that said A13. She paced towards the door and opened it to reveal a large lab. The classroom was a lot bigger than the chemistry labs at Winston.

"You're late." Said the bolding male teacher standing behind a large desk at the front of the classroom. He had on a badge that read Mr Whelan, which Tori guessed was his name.

"I know." Tori huffed. "I had trouble finding my way…"

"Just take a seat." Whelan interrupted.

Tori heard giggling coming from the back of the classroom and turned to see Alex and Deak, probably laughing at her getting in trouble. Tori ignored them and sat by herself at the front desk and took out her science book and a pen.

As she copied the notes from the board, the boring topic of reaction equations, Tori heard the door open again.

"You're late." Whelan repeated to whoever walked through the door.

"Uh huh." The person mumbled.

"You're looking better." A familiar voice said. Tori looked to her right and higher up to see Jeremy, now in his school uniform, standing there.

"Uh, yeah. Funny what clean clothes can do." Tori joked. She looked back at her work not wanting to get distracted.

"Anyone sitting here?" Jeremy indicated to the empty stool. Tori shook her head to say no and Jeremy sat down next to her.

After Jeremy took out a book and a pen he turned to Tori, "so, why d'you move here?" He asked, wanting to make conversation.

"I…" Tori hesitated for a moment. "I got into a bit of trouble."

"So they sent you here?" Jeremy sounded confused. "That's not that bad of a punishment."

"I've been put in the JROTC program. They think it'll help straighten me out." Tori rolled her eyes at the last sentence.

"_That _sounds like punishment. Have you seen the people in that program?" Jeremy pointed to Wuliger, wiping his nose with what looked like the tenth tissue, and Heathcoat, sneaking a couple of chips into his mouth and chewing slowly so that no one could hear the crunch.

Tori laughed and nodded.

"Quiet." Whelan droned at Tori and Jeremy, who both went back to her work.

Alex kept looking back at Tori as she laughed with Jeremy, the renowned jock and player of the school.

He could care less who she spoke to, but of all the people. Alex then thought back to the wet bed he'll be sleeping in that night.

'If she gets hurt that's her problem.' He thought.

"We'll get her back." Deak whispered.

"What?" Alex's mind went blank for a moment.

"For what she did to your bed."

Alex nodded understandingly. "How?"

Deak paused. "We'll think of something."

*

The sun finally went down and as soon as it got dark Tori decided to go straight to bed. It was only rarely that Tori ever went to bed as soon as the sun went down but at least in her sleep she would have a bit of time to think for herself.

Tori opened her trunk to get out her pyjamas and as she stuck her hand in she felt something wet and what felt like a doughy clump.

"Ugh!" She exclaimed as her hand came out of the trunk covered in a powdery white liquid. It felt like she'd just stuck her hand in cake mix. "What the hell?" She yelled at the boys, who were all looking over innocently.

"Who's laughing now?" Alex mumbled as he flipped though a magazine. He had his feet twisted around the bed to dodge the slowly drying puddle at the foot of his bed.

After moments of hyperventilating, Tori made the decision to just sleep in her uniform.

When she laid on her side the belt buckle in her skirt dug into her side, so after taking her belt off Tori got comfortable and went to sleep.

'Just wait 'til morning.' Alex smirked as he saw Tori sleeping comfortably.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Chapt. 6**_

The next morning Tori had found out the hard way what had been poured in her trunk and over her clothes. A mixture of water and flour had soaked through her stuff creating a sticky, white mess, much like a cake mix.

Overnight the mixture dried and caused the material to become stiff and crispy like dried mud.

Tori tried to scratch the flour off of her clothes as she walked towards the field. The green on her uniform could hardly be seen underneath the white crisps.

Even from a few metres away, Tori could see Alex struggling not to laugh when he saw her.

Major Payne turned again as soon as she got there.

"What the hell did you do?" Payne asked, the tone in his voice hinted laughter as he spoke.

Tori didn't bother answering.

Alex thought, by the look on her face, that she was about to punch Payne in the face. Her right fist was held tightly into a ball by her side.

"Dunn!" Payne called little Tiger Dunn to him.

Tiger ran towards him and stopped at his feet.

"Show Miss Lockhart to the laundry to wash her uniform." Payne ordered.

Tiger complied straightaway. Tori was about to follow him when Payne started talking again.

"Uh, while you're there, you can wash all the other uniforms too. They should already be there." Payne grinned. "It'll help the laundry lady a whole lot."

Tori gritted her teeth and went back to her trunk to collect the rest of her clothes.

'At least I won't have to do drills,' Tori thought as she chucked her clothes in the basket by her trunk.

Tiger led Tori to the laundry and left her there.

The laundry lady who Payne spoke about was already there. She was a round woman with sandy blonde, grey specked hair and she wore a pinstriped dress underneath an apron.

"What d'you want?" She snapped at Tori.

"Um…" Tori was stunned for a moment. "I was told to wash the JROTC uniforms."

"Cool." The laundry lady seemed happy all of a sudden. "Detergent is on that top shelf, the rest of the uniforms are there and the machines are right here." She tapped the top of the middle washing machine.

As the laundry lady went to leave Tori tried to stop her. "W-wait," she stuttered, "where are you going?"

"I'm going for my brake." The laundry lady explained. "I only get those every so often. Thanks kid." She left quickly, not letting Tori get in another word.

Tori turned to the laundry machines. The laundry was a whole new world for Tori; even she will admit she's pretty lazy when it came to cleaning.

Tori had no idea what she was doing.

'You could start by loading the machine with the clothes,' said a voice in her head.

She opened the machine on the far left and, seeing it was empty, she placed the clothes from the basket into it. She then grabbed the detergent from the shelf and read the instructions on the back. The instructions said to only pour a small amount over the clothes. Tori did just that, pouring a splash of the liquid detergent into the machine.

After closing the lid Tori stared blankly at the controls at the top of the machine.

'So many buttons,' she looked at all of them until she found a small button with the word START in tiny print below it. 'That's useful.'

Tori pressed the button and stepped back as the machine began with a jumped. She stood a few feet away until the machine seemed to be running smoothly.

When the first lot started up Tori took the boys uniforms and repeated what she did with the first batch.

Just as Tori was closing the lid she saw a basket to her right that had all different coloured clothing, probably the teachers' clothes. She had a small flashback of when her father tried to do laundry and mixed the red clothing with the white, dying blotches of pink all over her clothing.

She looked to the right shelf and saw a bottle of bleach in the middle. Turning back to the basket Tori spotted a pair of red socks and got an idea.

Tori checked to make sure the laundry lady wasn't coming back.

Keeping the lid open, Tori grabbed the bottle of bleach. Without reading the label, Tori poured the strong liquid over the uniforms and closed the lid. When she presses the start button the machine that held the first lot make a dinging sound to declare it had finished.

Tori emptied the machine, inspecting each piece of clothing hadn't been shrunk or torn and placing each into the basket.

It took just about fifteen minutes for the machine to finish and the ding echoed through the room again.

She opened the lid slowly, worried about what she may have done. The dark green patches of the uniforms had only faded slightly, but the lighter patches had turned an extremely light, almost white, yellow.

After checking how the uniforms came out, Tori grabbed the pair of red socks and dropped them in the machine on top of the uniforms. She then poured in the detergent, closed the lid and started the machine.

About fifteen to twenty minutes later the ding sounded again and Tori quickly opened the lid.

Tori gasped when she saw what she had done.

The almost white patches on the uniforms had been dyed a light pink and the dark green patches were only barely dyed a sickly brown colour.

*

After placing her clean, still wet clothes, in her trunk, Tori picked up the basket of the boys' uniforms and took them outside.

She saw Major Payne standing in front of the cadets as they did push ups and showed him the basket.

"Major Payne, sir." Tori already started her sucking up.

Payne turned to her and his eyes were drawn straight to the brown and pink uniforms, though they could hardly be recognised as uniforms anymore.

"What did you do now?" Payne's voice sent the hairs on the back of Tori's neck to stand up.

'I never realised how scary he is until now.' Tori took a deep breath and tried her best to keep her voice steady, and believable.

"Someone left a pair of red socks in the machine." Tori didn't think the story was believable, but continued. "I didn't realise when I put the uniform in and when they were done…" she stopped talking as she lifted the basket.

Payne didn't say anything as he kept staring at Tori. After wha seemed like a few minutes, Payne shrugged.

"I don't really care." He said. "You're probably going to have to explain if those socks have faded though. He he he." He laughed.

"You're really not mad." Tori stood away from him thinking he was just playing. 'Any minute he's gonna explode.'

"Nah. As long as I don't have to wear them." He chuckled more.

Tori nodded and turned to the boys. "Oh, boys!" She yelled in an innocent, motherly voice.

The all stopped doing push ups and looked at her.

Tori placed the basket on the ground and pulled out a shirt. "Look at your new uniform."

One by one, the chins of each cadet dropped. Even from a distance they could tell that the light patches were pink.

"You've got to be kidding me." Alex mumbled. "Great comeback Deak." He snapped at his friend.

"You agreed to it." Deak snapped back. "Anyway, they don't look too bad." He tried to lighten the mood.

He shrugged until Alex gave him a disagreeing look.

'I win.' Tori thought victoriously as she walked back to the barracks.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Chapt. 7**_

All the boys tried to avoid changing uniforms for days. They kept wearing the uniform that they had on the day Tori dyed the rest of their clothes, but after a couple of days it became apparent that they wouldn't be able to wear the same thing for much longer. The cadets all smelt so bad they could attract skunks.

Fortunately for them, though, training wasn't until the end of the day. So at least they could avoid being seen in pink until then.

The first class Tori had that day was English. She'd already had English two times that week so she didn't have any trouble finding her way.

When she got there, the classroom had already been filled. Tori was told when she first had English that this happened a lot so she had to get there quick.

"There's a seat up the back." Mrs Cloris, the English teacher, said as Tori tried to look over the heads of students.

Tori walked straight to the back but stopped when she saw who the spare seat was next to.

"Is anyone sitting here?" Tori asked, knowing in the back of her mind what the answer was going to come out like.

"Does it look like…?" Alex answered, the expression on his face saying 'duh'.

Tori didn't say another word until she sat down. "Where's Deak?" She wondered aloud.

"He's sick." Alex rolled his eyes at the front of the classroom.

'Sorry for asking' Tori cocked her eyebrows before getting out her book and pen.

She looked to the board which had the words _Personal Development in Literature _written on it. The topic was completely different to what she was learning at Winston, which was _How Prejudice is Presented in Fiction_.

"We're going to be looking at the personal development of the main character in Great Expectations." Cloris spoke quietly as though she was talking to herself.

Tori felt relieved when she heard the words 'Great Expectations'. Great Expectations was one of her favourite books. When her family were going through a rough time, Tori read anything she could find to take her mind elsewhere.

"Does _anyone…_" Cloris sounded hopeless as she put a lot of emphasis on that last word, "know who wrote Great Expectations or _maybe _who the main character in the book was?"

Tori looked around at the whole class, who just stared blankly at the front, obviously not knowing the answer. Rolling her eyes, she raised her hand slowly and held it just above her head. The teacher's eyes widened.

"Uh, y-you know the answer?" The pitch of her voice went high from shock. The entire class turned to look at Tori.

'Now I know how a goldfish feels,' Tori thought as she couldn't escape the attention.

"Um, Charles Dickens wrote Great Expectations." Tori answered just loud enough for the teacher to hear. "And the main character was Philip Pirrip, Pip was his nick…" Tori stopped there, thinking she had said too much, as the class just gawked at her as though she'd just said the worst swear word known to man over and over again.

Tori looked down at her desk when she couldn't take the attention anymore.

"That's right." Cloris said. Not saying another word, she turned to the board to write some notes.

Alex's eyes kept going back to Tori as she copied the notes from the board into her book. Tori felt his eyes beaming into her so she turned just as he did.

"What?" Tori barked. She touched her face thinking she had something gross on it.

Alex smiled smugly and looked away. "Nothing," He said shortly. "I just didn't think you were the type of person to read anything that doesn't have style tips. Or anything that had over a hundred pages with no pictures."

"Ha ha." Tori laughed bitterly then rolled her eyes. "Why are you insulting me when you didn't even know who Charles Dickens is?" She joked.

"I don't read at all." Alex poked fun at himself. Tori grinned genuinely. "I do know who Charles Dickens is anyway. I just didn't know that he wrote Great Expectations."

"Uh huh," Tori found trouble buying what he said as truth.

"He wrote Oliver Twist, I know that." Alex proved himself, only slightly.

"Duh," Tori said. She laughed at herself as though she just said an inside joke. She stopped laughing when she realised something. "This is the only proper conversation we've had."

"That's because you're always too busy dying our clothes pink and soaking my bed." Alex said. Though he was only joking, it took Alex just a few seconds to realise that the tone in his voice made him sound serious. He went to apologise but saw the look on Tori's face.

Tori couldn't tell if that was a joke or not. 'Why do I even try?' Tori wondered as she went back to her work.

*

Everyone rushed from the class when the bell rang so quickly that Tori didn't even have time to pack before they all left had already gone.

Seeing it was just her and Mrs Cloris in the room, Tori attempted to move quicker as she wanted to avoid awkward conversation. She flung her bag over her shoulder and started to pace to the door when her plan failed.

"You've been a big surprise," Cloris spoke just before Tori put one foot out the door.

Tori pursed her lips and turned around. "What?" Tori furrowed her eyebrows.

"Well, the way your former principal described you, I thought you'd be one of those hopeless cases."

Tori's eyes widened. "Hopeless…"

"What I mean is... I thought you wouldn't even try."

Tori nodded slowly. "Did Hardy tell you what grades I got?" She asked sceptically.

"Yes, but getting good grades in exams and participating in class are two different things." Cloris said seriously. "Do you think you're going to get away with acting out in collage?"

Tori shook her head slowly. "I know," Tori couldn't think of anything else to say and spun around to leave again.

"And Tori," Cloris stopped Tori from leaving again. "Keep up the good work." She said wholeheartedly.

Tori smiled earnestly and stood still for a moment waiting for Cloris to speak again and then finally moved on to her next class.

As Tori walked to class, the last words Cloris had said kept replaying in her head. It was the first time in a while, probably years, which Tori had been praised for something, anything. Her own parents, when they're ever around, never say anything good when it came to her anymore. Not even something insignificant like saying congratulations on winning a soccer match.

Tori had maths with Mr Andrews. Even though Tori hated maths, it was the only class that she didn't share with Alex or Deak.

When Tori sat down on the far left a pretty, dark skinned girl sat down next to her.

"Hi," she greeted Tori enthusiastically.

"Hello," Tori beamed.

"You're the new girl, right?" The girl asked.

Tori nodded. "Yes, I started on Monday. I'm Tori." She acquainted herself.

"I know. I'm Alicia, most people call me Alice." Tori nodded slowly not knowing where this was going. "I'm the Student Body President. It's part of my duty to help new students settle in." Tori thought Alicia was quite bubbly.

"Oh, that's all right. I'm actually coping pretty well." That was a half lie. Tori still had trouble finding classes around the school and she hadn't really made any friends.

"Okay. Well, anytime you feel you need help, I'm your girl. Or if you just wanna talk." Alicia indicated to herself.

"Thanks," Tori said honestly. Just as she said that Jeremy walked past to take a seat at the back. Before he sat down he looked at Tori and smiled so Tori smiled back.

"Jeremy Walken, huh?" Even though Alicia whispered Tori still turned to check that Jeremy hadn't heard her. "He is good looking, I guess."

Tori smiled and shook her head.

"You're in that military program right?" Alicia inquired.

"Yes. That's the main reason I'm here." Tori answered.

"What's that like? Being the only girl in the group has gotta be tough."

"It's not that bad. I don't really pay much attention to that." Tori lied again. Being the only girl was probably the reason she wasn't getting along with the rest of the squad.

"It must be fun showing them up though." Alicia said with a mischievous smirk on her face as she nudged Tori with her elbow.

"Yeah. That's the best part." That part was entirely true.

When the bell rang for the end of class everyone rushed out just as they did after English. Tori hadn't learnt from last time as she packed up at a normal pace. She didn't realise that it wasn't just her and the teacher in the room this time though.

"Tori," the familiar, smooth as silk, voice spoke.

Tori looked up from her bag to see Jeremy standing in front of her. "Hi," she said placing an annoying, loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Hey, are you going to be busy tomorrow?" Jeremy asked confidently and Tori's eyes widened for a second until she calmed herself down.

"Uh, no. I don't have anything on tomorrow. Why?"

"Did you wanna go out to eat?" Jeremy asked the question Tori had been anticipating. "On weekends we're allowed out and there's a place just near here…"

"Yes," Tori realised she answered too quickly. "I mean yeah, I guess."

"Cool," Jeremy said before leaving the room.

'See this place ain't so bad,' said that voice in Tori's head as she left the room.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Chapt. 8**_

Alicia was waiting for Tori at the door before they walked to the eating hall. Tori saw the look on Alicia's face that said she'd heard the conversation between Tori and Jeremy.

"A lot of girls in this school like Jeremy." Alicia said. "He's not really my type though." Alicia peaked over at the cadets tables.

Tori quickly turned her laugh into a cough when she realised Alicia was looking at Deak. 'She can't be serious,' Tori thought.

After grabbing a tray of food, Tori headed straight for the table, at the back of the hall with the cadets, where she normally sat.

"Where are you going?" Alicia almost yelled in Tori's direction. "Come sit with us." Alicia pointed to a table in the middle of the hall where a trio of girls were sitting.

Tori hesitated for a moment then walked over to the table. The group of girls looked over at Tori as she sat down.

"Girls, this is Tori. She's new." Alicia introduced Tori and all the girls said hi. "Tori, this is Melanie," Alicia pointed to an auburn haired, blue eyed girl, "this is Christina," she pointed to the brunette girl with silvery blue eyes, Christina said hi to Tori kindly when she was introduced, "and this is Lyndall." The blond haired, brown eyed girl also waved at Tori so Tori waved back.

"When did you get here?" Christina asked, breaking the silence.

"Uh, Monday." Tori answered shortly.

"Really? You've been here that long? How come I haven't…" Lyndall was interrupted by Alicia.

"Tori is in the military program." Alicia answered for Tori excitedly.

"Isn't that for boys?" Melanie asked somewhat mockingly. Tori could already tell that Melanie wasn't fond of her.

"It was. But they let me in under… certain circumstances." Tori said slowly.

"Certain circumstances?" Melanie looked curious.

Tori was about to say something when Alicia answered for her.

"Just leave it Melanie." Alicia sounded annoyed.

Looking back and forth between the two, Tori had a feeling that there was tension between Alicia and Melanie.

Alicia leaned over to Tori. "Don't mind her," she whispered so quietly that Tori could hardly hear. "It's me that she's got a problem with, not you. She only hangs here cause no one else in the school can stand her."

Tori nodded once and kept quiet as she ate. She heard Alicia speak again but didn't hear what she said. She could only make out the words 'reminds me.'

"Hey, guess who asked Tori out on a date." Alicia looked straight at Melanie.

"Who?" Christina and Lyndall both asked at the same time. Melanie looked as though she couldn't care less as she picked the cheese out of her salad.

"Jeremy," Alicia answered as though Jeremy was a one-named celebrity. Melanie suddenly seemed interested as her head shot straight to Tori.

"Nice." Christina said, looking impressed.

"Someone's desperate. You've been here for not even a week and you go for the first guy that asks you out?" Melanie said as though trying to turn Tori off.

Tori just shrugged. "We're only going out to eat."

"Exactly Melanie," Alicia sounded as though she was teasing Melanie.

Before anyone could say anything else the bell rang.

As Tori walked over to the cart, to put her tray away, Alicia stopped her for a moment.

"Don't give a second thought to what Melanie said." She said. "She used to date him. They had a sort of on-again off-again relationship."

As she walked to her class, Tori saw that Alicia had an expression on her face that said 'oops'. She probably thought she should have left that last part out.

"It's okay." Tori said as she walked in the opposite direction.

*

The end of the day finally came and this time Tori was actually looking forward to training, for the first time in that entire week.

The boys almost ran to the fields as they tried to avoid taunts from their school mates. Tori laughed as she saw the specks of pink and brown running over. Each cadet looked at Tori with an expression on their faces saying 'you're not getting away with this.'

Tori cocked her eyebrows as if to say 'really?' She looked to Major Payne who also looked to be laughing. He didn't start until the cadets formed one straight line.

"All right, my little power puff girls," Payne quipped. All the cadets, except for Tori, bit their lips in anger. "Today we're starting the hard stuff. He he he."

The smile was wiped straight off of Tori's face and it was now the boys' turns to laugh.

They walked over to what looked like an obstacle course. There were tight looking tunnels, walls with ropes hanging from them and a split wooden deck with a rope hanging above. That was just to name a few of the obstacles.

"Have fun," both Wuliger and Heathcoat whispered mockingly to Tori as they stopped just in front of the course. She turned to them both with narrowed eyes and the smiles were wiped off of their faces before they walked on further.

"You all should know the drill." Payne said, not bothering to recognise that Tori was new and didn't know what was about to happen. "The aim is one minute twenty. Begin." And with that the male cadets all ran onto the course, starting with the tyres laid flat across the grass.

Tori followed them, though at a much slower, frankly pathetic, pace, and started at the same place they had.

Trying hard not to trip, Tori stepped carefully into each tyre, one foot at a time.

"Hurry up princess!" Yelled Payne. "I don't wanna be here til Christmas."

When Tori made it past the tunnels and got to the wide ladder the boys had already finished and were watching her make a pathetic attempt. She could hear them laughing as her foot kept slipping on a step.

Climbing up onto the deck, Tori realised the rope was too far to reach.

"Can someone swing the rope over?!" Tori yelled, feeling helpless.

When no one moved Tori's stubbornness got to her and she climbed back down the way she got up.

"Get back up there!" Payne yelled.

"Can you at least show me how it's done?" Tori asked.

"You're supposed to figure it out yourself." Payne said both in a teasing and serious manner. "Just as the rest of the squad had."

"Well how am I supposed to do that?" Tori indicated to the high deck. "I have exactly got the longest arms. I don't even think I'm tall enough to reach it from the ground."

"You'll figure it out." Payne said shortly. "Again."

The boys did the same thing as they had done before.

Tori watched for a lot longer until Payne hollered at her to start.

*

Tori had never felt as sore in her life as she did when she walked back to the barracks, after training. Not even her soccer practices had been that gruelling.

She sat on the edge of her bed and her back cramped up as she bent down to take off her socks.

"Ouch… ouch," she murmured over and over again as she slid her right sock off.

After getting both socks off, Tori grabbed her own shampoo and pyjamas and walked into the showers, closing and locking the door.

Again, it hurt her just take off her clothes, especially as she lifted her arms to take off her shirt.

The cold water had still not been fixed, but it felt good as it poured over her hot, probably bruised, skin.

After letting her body cool down, Tori piled a large amount of shampoo into her hand and lathered it into her hair. It felt good as she scrubbed her scalp.

With her hair rinsed thoroughly, Tori stopped the water and stepped out of the shower. After drying her hair and getting dressed Tori walked out of the showers into a herd of laughing cadets.

As soon as they saw her, each cadet got stitches as they bent over in laughter.

"It was my first day. It's not that funny." Tori said, thinking they were laughing at her performance on the course.

Not wanting to deal with this, Tori went straight to bed, placing the pillow over her ear so she couldn't hear anything.

'I have a date with Jeremy tomorrow,' Tori said over and over again in her head to calm herself down.

*

Morning finally came and Tori slept in until nine, when she realised what today was. Excited, she got out of bed quickly and, grabbing a brush and her own clothes, went to the changing room to get dressed.

After getting changed into a elbow-sleeved red top and jeans, Tori brushed her hair.

As she brushed her hair, Tori turned to the small dusty mirror and turned away for a second before doing double takes. Her eyes widened and she dropped the brush as she looked into her reflection.

"Aaaaaaaah!" Tori screamed so loud she woke up the cadets, and possibly the entire school.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapt. 9**_

Tori hardly recognised her hair as it framed her face. Her long, brown locks had been replaced by a mass of sickly green hair.

Tori tugged at her hair, hoping it was just a wig. It wasn't.

She ran to the showers and turned the water on before plunging her head underneath. Tori scrubbed and scratched and itched, doing anything she could to get the green out of her hair.

After a long time spent under the water, Tori scrubbed her hair wildly with the towel. She then pulled her hair to the front to see if any of the green had gone. Nope. Her hair was still the same colour. The towel didn't even have one speck of green on it.

"Boys!" Tori screeched and ran out to find the cadets smiling and laughing as they had the night before.

She turned her attention straight to Deak and Alex. "You two!" She pointed accusingly.

"N-nice… h-hair." Deak tried to speak while trying to stop laughing.

"You dyed… my hair… green." Tori said through gritted teeth.

"You dyed our uniforms pink." Alex said with a smirk on his face.

It was then that Tori snapped. "Your uniforms aren't attached to you, you son of a bitch!"

Every eye in the room widened. The boys had finally done it. They pushed her too far. When she stepped forward slightly Alex stepped back as though scared she was about to attack.

"Settle down." Alex said as though Tori was overacting.

"Don't tell me to settle down!" Tori directed Alex's words back to him. "WHAT IF THIS IS PERMANENT?!" Tori pointed to her hair with a trembling hand.

"Don't worry it's not." Deak said. "I couldn't find a permanent one." He joked.

Unable to control herself, Tori suddenly pounced onto Deak, pushing him to the ground. She grabbed his neck and started to choke him.

"YOU… THINK… THIS IS… SO… FUNNY?" Tori said as she pushed and pulled at his neck and continued smacking his head into the ground.

The boys grabbed Tori's arms to try and pry her off of Deak.

"Get… her off!" Deak struggled to speak.

Alex grabbed Tori and almost threw her off.

"You psycho!" Deak said as he got up. Red finger marks were already forming on the skin of his neck.

"It's only hair." Alex said waiting a moment before letting her go. "At least no one has to see it for a few days."

Tori remembered, again, that today was the day she had the date with Jeremy.

"Yeah. If only I didn't have a date today." Tori spoke with an eerily calm voice, dusting off her clothes with her still shaking hands.

"You have a date?" The smile on Alex's face was wiped off.

"Yes!" Tori barked. "With Jeremy Walken." She said as though that fact would get her any sympathy. "When he see's me he's gonna think he's dating Medusa!"

"At least you'd have something interesting to talk about." Deak quipped again. While he was speaking Alex cocked his eyebrows and shook his head as if to say 'don't go there.' "It'll probably be the first time he'll speak about someone else's hair, instead of his own."

Again Tori jumped on Deak, pushing him to the floor.

"HERE'S… SOMETHING TO… TALK ABOUT… BITCH!" Tori shrieked as her hands squeezed around his neck.

"Stop it!" Yelled someone at the door as the boys try to pull Tori off Deak again.

Tori stopped and looked over her shoulder to see Payne standing by the door. Embarrassed, she quickly stood up.

"What the hell is going on?" Payne asked looking from Tori to Deak, still lying on the floor.

"Take a look at my hair and guess." Tori said as she tried to catch a breath.

"It's green." Payne stated the blatantly obvious.

"I know it's green." Tori closed her eyes and bit her tongue to control her temper. She didn't like that he was being so cool about this. "They… switched my shampoo or something." Come to think of it, Tori wasn't exactly sure how they did it.

"Do you have proof?" Payne questioned.

"Well he admitted it." Tori indicated to Deak.

"No I didn't." Deak lied.

"Yes you did." Tori snapped. "Stop lying. You admitted it when you said you couldn't find a permanent…"

"Now you're just making up shit…" Deak interrupted.

"No I'm not. Tell him." Tori pointed to Payne.

"He didn't admit to anything, Lockhart." Alex joined in. "He said he couldn't find anything permanent. He never said he found anything else."

"Shut up! So I'm supposed to believe my hair just magically turned green!" Tori screamed. "God! This place is like St Trinians on testosterone!"

"Enough!" Payne ceased all the yelling.

Tori, Deak and Alex all turned to Payne at the same moment.

Payne started chuckling for a moment. "You know I could shave it off for you." He laughed.

Alex, Deak and the rest of the cadets all laughed along with Payne as though remembering a you had to be there moment.

"I don't think so." Tori answered, not knowing if Payne was at all serious. "I'm supposed to go out… with a friend today."

"Well, just put a hat on or something. I don't care." Payne walked to the door. "Just stop annoying me." He yelled as the door shut behind him.

Tori took a deep breath and walked to her trunk. Finding her red Manchester United cap, Tori twisted her hair into a loose bun and tucked it in the cap.

"You're not going to get away with this." Tori growled as she walked to the bathroom. She didn't wait for a reply before slamming the door and locking it.

Checking her reflection again, Tori saw that her face was all red and blotchy. The red could be easily seen again her pale skin tone.

Tori took a step away from the mirror and placed her head in her hands.

"I really don't like this place." She said her voice muffled by her hands.

Tori didn't get out of the bathroom until ten o'clock, when Jeremy told her to meet him.

He was already standing at the door of the barracks. All the cadets were sitting outside staring at him as he waited.

Jeremy turned and saw Deak, who was seated not far from him, catching a glimpse of the red marks on his neck.

"What happened to your neck?" Jeremy asked, pointing to what looked like red finger prints.

Deak arched his neck and rolled his eyes. "Why don't you ask your date?" He said.

Just before Jeremy could speak again, Tori walked out.

"Hey," Tori greeted him, pulling at her hat to make sure none of her hair could be seen.

"Hello," Tori thought she saw a flicker of fear in Jeremy's eyes when he said hello back.

As they left, Tori turned her head around to face Deak and Alex. She stuck her middle finger up at both of them. Instead of appearing insulted they both mouthed 'have fun' before Tori spun her head back to the front.


	10. Chapter 10

_**A/N - Finally up to chapt 10! Thanks for all the reviews, they've all been great. Enjoy.**_

* * *

**_Chapt. 10_**

Jeremy drove Tori, in his classic Chevrolet, to a small burger bar that was only a far walking distance from the school, in the opposite direction of the side that Tori had first arrived from.

The interior of the burger place was similar to a diner that one would see in a 1950's film. It had black and white square shaped tiles, framed pictures of Hollywood icons such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley and there was a Jukebox against the wall.

"You go buy something," said Jeremy, "I'll go find us a table."

After waiting in line for a few minutes, and after hearing her stomach growling loudly, Tori ordered a burger with everything on it.

As soon as she sat down at the table that Jeremy had saved, Jeremy went to buy his own food. He got back to the table quicker than Tori had.

After a moment of staring at Tori, Jeremy spoke, "what's with the hat?" he asked.

Tori had been wearing the hat for so long she had almost forgotten she had it on. "Oh," she stalled her answer as she tried to think of something, "bad haircut," she said too quickly.

'Nice excuse,' she thought sarcastically.

Jeremy just nodded.

Feeling awkward, Tori looked down and opened her burger.

"Someone's hungry." Jeremy said. "You're pretty small for someone who eats that much."

Tori stuck her head up at Jeremy and then at his plate to see that he only had a small cheeseburger.

"Yeah," Tori drawled, "I haven't really had a good meal in weeks." That was a lie. The school's food wasn't actually too bad.

Tori went to pick up the burger but, feeling embarrassed, put it back down and slightly pushed it away from her.

"Actually, I'm not really that hungry." Tori said deceptively. She wrapped her burger up and made a mental note to save it for when she got back to the school.

Jeremy shrugged and then chomped into his own burger.

'This must be how smokers feel when they go cold turkey.' Tori thought as the wrapped up food seemed to call to her. She was not the type who left food untouched. She just ate her fries and drank her cherry soda.

"How's the soccer team going?" Tori asked wanting to make interesting conversation.

Jeremy swallowed a bite. "We've won and lost some." He said.

"I played soccer back at Winston." Tori said randomly.

"Cool," Jeremy finished the burger and took a gulp from his cola. He didn't say anything else.

They both kept quiet for a few minutes until Jeremy appeared to have remembered something.

"Hey, uh," he hesitated, "what happened to that guy's neck?"

Tori shot her neck up so fast that she felt it crack. "Ow," she whispered as she massaged her neck. "W-what guy?" Tori knew who he was talking about but decided to act as though she didn't have a clue.

"That black guy." Jeremy answered. "He had all red marks on his neck. They looked like fingerprints."

"I don't know what happened." Tori fibbed. "Why would you ask me about that?"

"He told me to ask you."

'I'm gonna kill him.' Tori rolled her eyes and bit her lip in anger. She looked at Jeremy and knew, from the look in his eyes, that he could tell she was lying.

*

When they got back to school, Jeremy and Tori sat in the car for a short time after it had been parked.

After the rollercoaster of a date, Tori wanted to get out of the car but, thinking it would be rude, she sat still.

"So," Jeremy huffed, "I had a good time." He said. Tori could hardly tell if he was being truthful or not.

"Me too," Tori looked out the window as she spoke. She turned to see Jeremy's face was extremely, almost uncomfortably, close and out of nowhere he pushed his face further in and pressed his lips onto hers.

Tori's eyes widened and before long Jeremy pulled away with a big smirk on his face.

"See ya," Tori said in a sort of daze. She picked up the wrapped burger on her lap and opened the car door.

"Later," Jeremy cocked his eyebrows up and down as Tori slammed the door.

Tori walked away not knowing what to think about the kiss. She did want it to happen, but it didn't reach her expectations.

'Thank you Hollywood.' Tori thought as she walked to the barracks. She'd always expected her first kiss to be like in the movies.

She felt relieved when she walked inside and no one was there. Just as she sat on her bed and took her shoes off that relief was swiftly turned into annoyance when the door opened and the boys walked in.

Tori recalled that she still had the hat on. Even though she felt the sweat underneath her hat she left it on.

"You!" Tori yelled as soon as Deak walked in.

"What now?" Deak droned.

"What did you say to Jeremy before we left?" Tori asked with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"Oh, that," Deak laughed. "He asked…"

"I know what he asked!" Tori almost burst her own eardrums. "Why can't you just keep your mouth shut?"

"I take it the date didn't go well?" Tori swore she saw Alex's mouth twitch up when he spoke.

"Oh, don't worry." Tori grinned. "The date went well." Another lie. "Though it was almost wrecked thanks to you." She stuck her finger straight at Deak.

She took her hat off to reveal her still green hair. The boys started chuckling again. She turned and walked to the showers slowly.

"The hair was my idea by the way." Alex said suddenly.

Tori spun her head scarily. "What?" She spat as her eyes narrowed into slits.

"It was my idea for Deak to fake being sick to get the hair dye." Alex said looking unfazed by Tori's death stare. "Though I said blue dye instead of green."

"Well, the joke's on you." Tori said. "Blue is my favourite colour." She thought that would make things better.

The boys all started snickering. Tori realised what she had said and whipped around quickly.

Tori didn't say anything as she went towards the showers. 'I'm gonna get him.'

*

Monday came and the green in Tori's hair had only faded slightly. She kept her hat on when she went to chemistry.

So that Whelan wouldn't notice she had the cap on Tori ran to a desk at the very back of the room and as soon as she sat down Tori picked up her large chemistry textbook, digging her face between it. She heard people laughing on her side but ignored it.

On her other side Tori saw someone sit down and poked her face around the book to see Jeremy sitting there. For the first time in her life, Tori felt annoyed that Jeremy sat next to her.

"Who is that up the back?" Tori heard Whelan ask, loud enough for the entire class to hear. He must have been talking about her.

"Shit," she cursed quietly.

"It's Tori Lockhart, sir." Alex's familiar voice answered. Tori whipped her head his way and gritted her teeth.

Alex just gave Tori an innocent smile as if to say 'what did I do?'

"Put the book down please, Miss Lockhart." Whelan ordered across the room. "We're not going to be using textbooks today."

Tori put her chin on the desk and put the book down.

"No hats on indoors." The teacher spat and Tori shot her head up.

"But I…" Tori tried to think of an excuse but Alex cut in.

"Sir, we weren't allowed to wear hats when we were shaved bold." He said pointing to himself and Deak, who nodded. "I don't think Tori should be allowed to just because… of her situation."

"He's right." Whelan said. "Off." He made a movement with his hand over his head to look like he was removing his own hat.

"Can everyone turn around…?"

"Off!" Whelan barked causing Tori to jump.

With a shaky hand, Tori lifted her cap to an array of laughter from the whole class. In the bright light of the classroom, the green in Tori's hair was even more visible.

Tori looked to Whelan who showed no remorse and continued on with the lesson. She ignored the cackles from Alex and Deak and tilted her head towards Jeremy. He turned to the front but Tori could see the look of humiliation on his face from having to sit near her.

Tori closed her eyes and slammed her head on the table. All she wanted to do was sleep and escape this nightmare.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Chapt. 11**_

The bell rang for the end of lessons but not the end of the nightmarish day for Tori.

Out of the five classes she had gone to, Tori was only allowed to wear her hat in English, as Cloris seemed to be the only sympathetic teacher in the school.

After school was, of course, JROTC training. Out of everything throughout the day, Tori was least looking forward to this.

Tori's hair camouflaged so well against her green uniform and the green hat she was made to wear that she looked like a short moss-ridden tree. The only thing that kept Tori in good spirits was the fact that the pink on the boys' uniforms hadn't faded either.

When she got there, Tori saw that the ground was covered in pugil sticks, long sticks that were heavily padded on each end. There was also padded armour laid alongside the sticks.

Just as Tori wondered what they were, the boys walked towards the equipment and each picked up a stick and put on the safety equipment. After grabbing their own things each cadet grouped themselves into pairs.

Tori went and grabbed the first stick she saw and put on the equipment. When she put everything on Tori looked up to see she was standing next to Alex. He didn't have a partner as Deak had gone with Cadet Fox, the deaf boy.

'This is gonna be fun.' Tori smirked to herself when she saw what the other cadets were doing.

Each pair used the padded ends of their chosen sticks to beat up their opponent.

Tori smiled until she turned around, when she felt something smack into her helmet.

Keeping herself from falling to the ground, Tori spun on her heel quickly and swung her stick, smacking Alex right on the centre of his helmet and causing his knees to buckle forward.

Quickly regaining himself Alex belted Tori around the side causing her to fall to the wet grass. Having dropped the stick, Tori swung her legs around Alex's, tripping him over and making him fall on his back.

Instead of standing up, Tori crawled over Alex, up to the height of his face, and smashed the padded end of the stick into his helmet.

Alex, ignoring the pain in his nose, chucked Tori off of him and kneeled on top of her. He then swung the stick around the side of Tori's face.

"Hey!" Payne yelled when he saw that things were getting out of control.

Alex felt a couple of hands pulling him up and off of Tori.

Tori struggled to get up as she felt a dizzy spell go through her head.

"When someone falls to the ground that should be enough of a signal to stop." Payne said, ignoring the fact that the two cadets almost beat each other to a bloody pulp.

"He started it." Tori made an excuse as she tried to catch her breath.

"I don't care who started it…" Payne spoke until Alex interrupted.

"Yeah, it looks like I finished it too." He said as he took off his helmet.

"Oh, I'll finish it." Tori said and before long she swung the stick towards Alex.

Alex ducked just in time as the stick swung over his head. Tori swung it too quickly that she couldn't stop it from hitting the person behind Alex.

The padded ending of the stick hit Major Payne squarely on the left cheek.

Tori gasped, dropping the stick to the ground as she clasped her hands over her mouth. Her eyes were widened to an extreme height as she couldn't figure out what to say.

"I'm sor…" she rapidly tried to apologise when Payne put his hand up to signal silence.

"This is getting very annoying." Payne said moving his jaw up and down. "I know that this isn't going to be solved in a day." Payne looked to be thinking for a moment.

'I'm getting it this time.' Tori thought when a smile crept onto Payne's face.

"Miss Lockhart…" he spoke slowly, "you will come back here for training every night, six to nine, for two weeks. Starting tomorrow night."

Tori's arms dropped disappointingly. 'I could've gotten worse.'

"Stone," Payne said and Alex looked up. "You're going to be coaching her."

"What?" Tori and Alex said at the exact same time.

"You heard me." Payne spoke with a tone no one would dare argue with. "If still can't get along after those two weeks the time will be extended."

Payne walked off without another word. Everyone, except for a stunned Alex and Tori, went back to what they were doing.

*

When they got back to the barracks, Tori and Alex didn't speak a word until they got inside.

"This is your fault, you know." Alex blamed Tori.

"My fault?" Tori laughed humourlessly. "What about you? Mr I hit people when they're not looking. Not just people, girls. I can get you arrested for that you know."

"Good. Then I won't have to deal with you." Alex said.

"Just shut up." Deak intervened. "Didn't you hear what Payne said? If you two don't start getting along he'll extend the time."

Tori didn't say anything. After a moment of just staring, she turned and went to take a shower.

*

Tori got dressed into her uniform and left the barracks as soon as morning came.

She felt good walking through the halls at such an early time as there was no one to gawk and giggle at her green hair. She also had time to think to herself.

When she strolled past a noticeboard Tori saw something and stopped to have a read.

The notice said **Parent's Day **in big colourful letters. It said that Parent's Day was on in about a week's time.

It was only then that Tori actually realised how long it had been since she'd spoken to her father.

Tori walked to the school office. The office was a small cluttered room with computers everywhere. Right beside the door was what looked to be the reception desk. A lady dressed in a black pant suit that had her hair pulled into a tight bun sat at the desk touch typing onto her computer.

"Excuse me," Tori spoke in a soft monotone.

The lady pulled her attention from her computer screen and looked up at Tori over her thin glasses that were just hanging on the tip of her nose. "Yes?" she spoke with a very nasal voice.

"Um, may I please use your phone?" Tori asked, speaking as kindly as she could manage without cracking a smile.

"What for?"

"I want to call my father." Tori answered.

The lady nodded. "You can use the phone in that cubicle just over there." She pointed forward.

"Thank you." Tori walked between the desks as she made her way to the small cubicle.

Finding a small white, yellowing, phone Tori picked it up and checked if the dial tone was working before dialling her home phone.

The phone rang about six times before it was picked up.

"Hello?" Tori heard her father's familiar voice.

"Hi dad. It's Tori." Tori spoke quietly.

"What happened?" Her father asked probably thinking Tori had done something.

"Nothing." Tori lied. She couldn't be bothered telling him what's been happening. She especially did not want to tell him what had happened yesterday.

"Then why are you calling? I'm not taking you out of that school if that's…"

"No. Dad, can you just listen?" Tori raised her voice. She rolled her eyes thinking this was useless. "I was just calling to tell you that Parent's day is coming up next Saturday."

"Yeah, I don't know if I can make it." Tori's father huffed; Tori could tell he was lying. He probably though she just wanted him there to bring her home.

"I knew it." Tori growled. "Don't worry about it dad. Forget I said anything." Tori spoke with an annoyed tone so that her father could tell that she was angry.

Before he could say anything Tori hung up the phone.

She walked straight out of the office, mumbling thanks to the receptionist before passing through the door.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Chapt. 12**_

Last period finally came and Tori had maths. Again she was not looking forward to after school activities. She knew that she would be training after school with the rest of the squad and then from six to nine with Alex.

'This place is gonna kill me.' She thought as she sat in her usual spot.

Alicia sat near Tori again, kindly ignoring the green hair as she took her seat. Alicia had already asked about the hair and, after hearing Tori explain why it was green, knew never to ask again.

"Has Jeremy talked to you much?" Alicia asked looking worried.

"A few times." Tori said truthfully. A few times wasn't as much as she would've liked. "I explained to him about the hair."

Jeremy, like Alicia, never asked about the hair again after hearing the explanation.

"Are your parents coming on Parent's Day?" Alicia asked.

"No. I don't think so." Tori scoffed. "I rang my dad to ask. Apparently he's going to be too busy."

"What about your mum?"

"I didn't bother asking her." Tori rolled her eyes. "She'll probably have some smutty book club meeting on that day."

Alicia made an expression to say she didn't know what Tori meant.

"My mother's really… girly…" Tori couldn't find the proper word. "No, that's not the word. How bout up herself."

Alicia didn't know whether to laugh or not.

"You know the mean, girly cheerleader type girls you see in movies?" Tori question.

"You mean like what Melanie tries to be?" Alicia joked scornfully.

"Yes. I guess." It was now Tori who didn't know if it was a good time to laugh. "My mum is like a mid-forty year old version of those."

"Oh," Alicia now understood what she meant.

"She's always trying to turn me into the same thing. She'll buy me colourful dresses and high heeled shoes. The clothes she gets me can be nice, but she wants me to wear them all the time." Tori remembered the times spent at her mother's house. "Whenever I was over her house she wouldn't let me wear my runners or a pair of shorts."

"Wow. She sounds… interesting." Alicia tried to find a less harsh word to explain Tori's mother.

"That's the nice way to put it." Tori sighed. "I can just imagine her face when dad told her he'd put me in a boys military program."

*

Drill training had finished and it was nearly six o'clock. Throughout the whole training session Payne had kept Tori and Alex away from each other, probably so that he wouldn't get hit again.

When the clock struck six Payne told Alex and Tori to stay behind and he led them to the obstacle course.

"You will both stay here until nine o'clock." Payne ordered.

To Tori's surprise he started to walk away. "Wait," she stopped him, "you're not staying?"

"No. I I've got more important things to do than watch a couple of hormonal teenagers." Payne said. "And don't even think about leaving. I'll know if you do. He he he." He chuckled as he walked away.

Tori just stared after Payne, even after he left, until she realised who she was alone with.

She turned slowly to Alex who kept a poised stance with his arms crossed. He had a smile on his face that said he was going to enjoy this.

"So," Tori decided to play it nice thinking that if they got along already Payne would shorten the time. "What are we doing first?"

Alex looked around the course and stopped turning his head when he saw the deck with the rope hanging above it.

Tori rolled her eyes. "Can you at least show me how it's done first?" She pleaded.

Alex just gave her a cheeky grin and shook his head. "I had to figure it out myself."

Tori bit into her tongue and narrowed her eyes into slits.

"The rope's already close to the deck so you should be able to grab it." Alex gave her a tip.

Tori stopped her glaring and walked to the slanting steps to get up onto the deck.

She stepped up slowly, trying to kill time and took a deep breath when she came into view of the rope.

The rope was just close enough for Tori to touch it. She stood on the very edge of the deck and held on to the vertical log beside her as she stretched out her arm to grab the rope.

Tori had never been afraid of heights that greatly until now.

After a few minutes, and as her arm started to ache, Tori finally wrapped her finger around the rope and pulled it in closer, wrapping her whole hand around it as it got closer.

Closing her eyes and counting to three, Tori placed her feet around the rope and slid down. As she slid down slowly, Tori's arms started to burn as the rope grazed them.

When she got to the floor and hastily let go of the rope, Tori took a peak at the inside of her arms to see that they had been tainted by nasty looking rope burn.

She walked back over to Alex, rubbing her arms as walked, to see that he had a grin on his face.

"What?" Tori spat, dropping her arms again.

"That's not how you're supposed to do it." Alex said his grin growing wider.

"How am I supposed to do it then?" Tori asked violently.

"You see that log on the ground?" Alex pointed to what he was talking about. Tori found the log and nodded. "You're supposed to swing onto that and then run across it. If you slip completely off it you have to start over again."

"You're joking right?" Tori gritted her teeth.

"No." Alex shook his head. "Just thank God you're not a man." He said getting nasty flashbacks of early experiences.

Tori, not knowing what he meant by that, said nothing and turned back to the deck.

Went she got to the rope, Tori grabbed it straightaway. She pulled the rope back as she stepped backwards and then, taking another deep breath, ran forward.

Tori thought she was doing well as the rope swung effortlessly until she remembered the log underneath her.

She looked down and waited until the rope got to just above the log, letting go without another thought when the rope got to that point.

The first foot that Tori landed with slipped on the log, bringing Tori down with it. When she landed, the section in between Tori's legs slammed onto the log. It was that very moment that Tori figured out what Alex had been talking about.

"Man that hurt." Tori groaned as she pulled herself up.

"See what I mean?" Alex yelled over the course.

"That is so funny." Said Tori sarcastically. Already, she couldn't take anymore. "I think where done for the day." She walked towards the school.

Alex spoke up. "Payne said not to…"

Suddenly, tiny sprinklers, neither Tori or Alex had seen, turned on sending strong, cold gushes of water over Tori.

Tori held her arms up over her head, as though that would've stopped the water from touching her, as she ran back into the middle of the course. By the time she got back, though, it was too late. Tori could hardly move as her soaked clothes weighed her body down.

"Here's a tip," Alex started, Tori couldn't tell if he was being serious or not, "when Payne says something, listen to every word he says." He kept quiet for a moment until he turned to Tori. Unable to control himself, Alex burst into laughter at the sight of Tori.

Tori stood on the spot shivering as her eyes pierced through Alex's skull.

"I'd start running if I were you." He continued cracking jokes. "You might catch a cold or something."

Tori put her ego to the side for a moment when she thought Alex may be right and she started to run around the course.

Alex watched as Tori ran. He didn't want to admit it but he thought Tori ran almost effortlessly, or that's what it looked like to him. It may have been because Payne had ordered her to run so much over the time she's been here, but Alex thought she looked like a natural as she sprinted.

When the pain in Tori's legs slowly went away, she hesitated to try out the rope to log obstacle again, this time at a slower pace. No matter how many times she tried, Tori still kept slipping on the log, though at least those times she knew to keep her legs together. After falling a countless amount of times, Tori couldn't tell what hurt worse when it hit the log, the tailbone or the inner thigh.

When Tori's watch read eight fifty-nine, Tori ran down the slanted side of the deck. She walked up to Alex with her hands behind her back. He just stared at her, without a clue of what she was about to do.

Alex took steps backwards every time Tori came closer.

Tori stood still for a moment, so Alex stood still, when suddenly Tori jumped forwards. Alex leapt and tripped over backwards when he heard a click.

One by one, again, the sprinklers turned on and, before he could get up Alex felt a rush of cold water spray down his back.

After just a few seconds the water stopped and Tori looked at her watch to see that the time was one minute after nine.

"Here's a tip," Tori struggled to keep a straight face as she spoke, "step to the side, not backwards." She walked to the barracks slowly, without the thought of helping Alex up.


	13. Chapter 13

_Chapt. 13_

Tuesday morning came and Tori's body already started to cave in from the extra training and all those times she'd fallen onto that log.

She was so sore that, even though she made her way to class early, she was still late as she could only walk at a slow pace. Even worse for Tori, her first class was physical education and the class were playing volleyball. It was the first time in Tori's life where she didn't want to play sport.

Tori asked the teacher, Mr Johnson, if she could sit on the sidelines for today. "Do you have a note from the nurse?" Johnson asked.

Tori shook her head. "No, but…"

"I can't excuse you unless you have a note." Johnson said. "Sorry, school's rules, not mine." He said unsympathetic.

Tori walked to the girls changing rooms to get changed. She saw Christina, who had only just gotten changed.

"Are you all right Tori?" Christina asked noticing Tori's limp.

"Yeah," Tori lied. "I'll be fine. Just a bit tired." She said before closing the door of the changing cubicle.

The physical education uniform was just a white polo shirt and blue gym shorts.

When Tori got out of the changing rooms into the main hall she saw that people had already been grouped into teams. As she saw that there were no mix gender teams, Tori guessed that the game was going to be girls verse boys.

"Tori!" Lyndall called over to Tori. When Tori saw her waving her hand she walked over towards the group of girls, which included Christina and Melanie, who didn't look too impressed that Lyndall was talking to Tori.

Johnson blew his whistle loudly to get everyone quiet. "Everyone get into positions on the court." He ordered.

Tori kept to the back, hoping that way the ball would hardly go her way. Before she had time to think, Johnson blew the whistle and the ball was smacked high into the air and sank down to the girl in the middle of the front row.

Tori could hardly concentrate on the game as her tiredness caught up with her from the night before. She kept daydreaming until she heard someone yell out her name.

By the time she was taken out of her daze, Tori saw the ball flying towards her. She hastily put out her hands to hit the ball just as it smacked into her head.

Tori didn't get knocked down but her dignity got toned down a few notches as she heard everyone failing to hold in their laughter.

She looked to the opposite side of the neck to see Alex, Deak and, even, Fox all not bothering to hold in their laughter like the rest of the class were.

'It's not _that _funny,' Tori wanted to yell out as she rubbed the top of her head.

"You can serve Lockhart." Johnson said sounding as though he just wanted her to hurry up and get the game started again.

Tori looked at the group of cadets again and saw that they weren't paying attention. Before they realized what was going on, Tori closed her right hand as she held the ball in her left and smacked it as hard as she could over the fence.

As soon as the smack echoed through the hall the Alex realized the ball was making its way, quickly, towards him. His eyes widening, Alex ducked just in time as the ball flew into where his head would've been. The ball continued to go until it hit the person behind Alex. Jeremy.

Jeremy collapsed straight to the ground just as Tori gasped and closed her hands over her mouth in shock.

Everyone else became shocked and walked over to Jeremy to see if he was okay. Ignoring the fact that no one came over to see if she was all right when she got hit, Tori followed the crowd towards Jeremy.

"I'm sorry Jeremy," was all Tori could think to say when she squeezed through the crowd. She gasped again when she saw his nose was bleeding.

"I'm fine," Tori could tell Jeremy was lying.

"That's enough." Johnson intervened as the group of people kept asking Jeremy questions. "Go grab some tissues and an icepack from the nurse Mr Walken."

Jeremy stood up slowly as he held his hand over his nose and exited the hall.

"Nice one green boy." Melanie whispered to Tori as she walked back to where she was standing before she moved.

'What the hell is her problem?' Tori thought as she stepped back into her own position. She now wished she hit Melanie instead of Jeremy. She giggled at the thought of Melanie's nose bleeding and turning purple. 'Alicia would've liked that.'

*

"How's your boyfriend's nose?" Alex asked Tori the moment their nighttime training started.

"I haven't asked him yet." Tori snapped. She left out the part about not having the courage to ask Jeremy how his nose was. "That would've been you if you didn't duck."

"I know." Alex nodded happily. "I have to admit though, you have a good arm." He snickered.

"You just keep on going with the jokes don't you." Tori expressed fake amusement. "Anyway, what _fun_ task are you going to make me do today?"

"I want you to run a couple of laps first and then you can try the monkey bars." Alex replied obviously enjoying his reign of power over Tori.

"I knew this was going to be exciting." Tori said sarcastically before starting her first lap around the course.

When she had gotten up to about three laps Alex stopped her and called her back.

"Do you have water?" Tori's throat felt dry as she tried to catch a breath.

Alex looked in the bag, probably a first aid kit, which Payne had given him and pulled out a bottle of water.

Though the water was a bit warm, Tori took a couple of large gulps before giving the bottle back.

"Monkey bars now." Alex nodded his head towards the rusted monkey bars.

Tori rolled her eyes as she turned towards the bars. She thought this would probably be the hardest part of the course. Tori was never very good at swinging across monkey bars, especially as a child.

When she got to the monkey bars, Tori realized that she was too short to reach the first bar. She stepped onto the log just before the bars and stretched out to grab the bar.

Tori held onto the first bar for a while until she took up the courage to let go with one hand and reach out for the second one.

When she took hold of the second bar with her left hand and released the grip of her right hand around the first only to have her left hand slip and cause her to fall to the ground.

Instead of feeling embarrassed Tori burst into laughter as she kept her back to the ground.

Alex got worried slightly when he saw that Tori wasn't getting up so he walked towards her to check if she was all right. He got to her only to realize that she was in hysterics. Alex couldn't help but laugh with her.

"You all right?" He inquired.

"Yeah," Tori breathed as she picked herself up off of the ground. She didn't know if she was laughing out of shock or because she pictured herself falling from an outside point-of-view.

Alex felt at a loss of words for a moment as he glanced at Tori's smile. He cleared his throat and looked away.

"Start over again," he said trying to stay serious.

Tori wiped her eyes and went back to the beginning.

*

As soon as the school bell rung the next morning Tori tried to find Jeremy.

She caught up to him just before class when she saw him standing by his locker.

She staggered gradually towards him and spoke softly. "Jeremy," She spoke from behind his locker door.

Jeremy closed the door to reveal his nose was still considerably red and painful looking.

"I'm sorry Jeremy." Tori apologized. "I wasn't aiming the ball at you."

"It's fine." Jeremy smiled. "You got me out of history class." He said.

Tori smiled faintly.

Jeremy grabbed her face under her faded green hair and pressed his lips softly against hers. Tori thought the kiss was a lot better this time so she went with the flow and sunk into it.

When the bell rang for everyone to get to class Jeremy let go with a big grin on his face. He winked before turning and making his way towards his first class.


	14. Chapter 14

_**Chapt. 14**_

Alicia met up with Tori as soon as the bell rang for recess. News got around fast about how the new girl, being Tori, smashed a ball into the face of one of the school's best soccer players.

"Apparently you broke his nose." Alicia said, speaking of the warped rumours.

"Who told you that?" Tori questioned, she spoke again before Alicia could speak. "I saw him this morning. His nose was only a little red."

"I know. I was just telling you what people have been saying." Alicia attempted to keep Tori composed. "So everything's all right between you two then?"

"Yeah," Tori didn't say anything else. She chose not to mention the kiss as that sort of thing always got Alicia overexcited. "Melanie got quite touchy about it though."

"Bitch," Alicia spat.

Tori let out a short chuckle as she kept her mouth open and couldn't think.

"What did she say?" Alicia inquired.

"Not much." Tori didn't want to get involved in whatever was going on between Alicia and Melanie. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened between you and Melanie?"

"I had a boyfriend about a year ago and as soon as we started dating Melanie became a different person." Alicia shook her head as she recalled past occurrences. "She would flirt with my boyfriend and touch his leg or his shoulder."

"Did you do anything about it or…" Tori asked.

"Not really." From the look on Alicia's face, Tori could tell she felt idiotic about not doing anything. "I thought she was just being friendly."

'A little too friendly,' Tori wanted to say.

"One day, when Melanie was getting changed in our room I thought she was taking too long and went to check if everything was all right. When I walked in I saw her and my boyfriend…" Alicia waved her hands as she tried to explain what happened without words. Tori knew what she was meaning to articulate.

Tori mouthed the word 'wow' as she didn't know what to say.

"If I were you," Alicia spoke again after a lengthy silence, "I'd keep an eye on Jeremy."

Tori nodded once when the bell rang for the next class.

*

When the afternoon came a big grey cloud started to float slowly over the school ground indicating rain was near.

'That's just great,' Tori thought. She still wasn't able to do monkey bars and had a feeling she was going to be made to do them again today.

A light spray of rain started to wash over the ground as the clock stroke six.

Tori and Alex stood in the rain as the rest of the walked back to the barracks.

"I want you to practise on the deck again today." Alex said as soon as everyone left.

"In the rain?" Tori asked. "Can't I do the monkey bars again?" She thought at least the monkey bars would be safer in the wet weather than the rope to log obstacle.

"If you get onto the log without slipping then you can do the monkey bars." Alex said.

"I slip on the log in dry weather, how do you not expect me to slip in wet weather?"

"Exactly." Alex smirked. Ignoring Tori's death stare he continued. "Do three laps around the field before you start on the deck though."

Tori ran slower than usual around the course to kill time before she had to go back on the deck.

When she'd finally finished the final lap, Tori walked back to Alex to have a drink before climbing on the deck.

When she grabbed the rope Tori swang from the deck straightaway. She didn't let go of the rope until her feet were steady on the log.

Placing her right foot in front of the left, Tori gradually let go of the rope, letting out a victorious sigh when she realised she'd finally done it.

Feeling confident Tori stepped forward. When she hastily moved, her left foot slid on the slippery log and she crashed to the ground beside the log.

Falling on her back, Tori felt a cold rush go up her spine as she lay there on the damp ground.

"Sorry." Alex yelled over the ground.

As Tori pulled herself off of the ground she turned to him confused. "What?" She yelled back.

"You were right about the slipping part." Alex joked.

Making a sort of growling noise, Tori climbed back up onto the deck and started again.

*

Again next morning, Tori could hardly move. Though fortunately for her, she had a free period that morning which meant she could sleep in.

She slept in until nine o'clock and, after brushing her teeth and changing into her uniform, went outside of the barracks for a walk.

Tori was pleasantly surprised to find that the morning sky was a beautiful, cloudless blue. She hoped the weather would stay like that for the rest of the day.

The grounds of the school were peaceful and silent and, as she strolled up to the school, Tori finally seclusion as she had time to herself for the first time in a couple of weeks.

The hallways in the school were also empty and only noise Tori heard was the tapping of her shoes on the floor as she ambled through the building. That was until she came near a corner by the trophy case.

Tori halted before the corner as she heard girlish laughter.

"I could tell her for you." Spoke a recognizable female voice sounding very excited and devilish.

"No, I'll tell her." Said a male voice. "She'll believe anything I say."

Tori realized whom the male voice belonged to and became vaguely short of breath. Turning her head around the corner Tori spotted Jeremy next to his locker with none other then Melanie. They were standing very close. Abruptly, Jeremy practically plunged his head under Melanie's jaw.

Hiding back behind the wall Tori closed her eyes as she slammed the back of her head against the wall.

Taking in a deep breath, Tori turned the corner.

As soon as he heard her footsteps, Jeremy jumped about a metre away from Melanie. Melanie, on the other hand, didn't bother to act innocent.

Tori walked closer to the locker with her hands behind her back. She cocked her eyebrows as she waited for Jeremy to speak first.

"Hello green boy," Melanie sneered, holding her head high.

Tori glared at Melanie for a moment before turning her attention back on Jeremy. "Well…" Tori shrugged, waiting for him to say something.

"I can't be seen with you." Jeremy said, being quite frank.

Tori was taken by surprise. "What do you…?" Tori could hardly speak.

"The whole school's been talking about how I had my nose broken by a girl." Jeremy tried to clarify.

Tori let out a short laugh. "So you're breaking up with me because of that?"

"Dating you is like dating one of my team mates." Jeremy blurted out like word vomit. Melanie almost snorted with laughter.

"You're kidding me right?" Tori bit her lip.

"No." Jeremy shook his head. "I mean, you eat like a boy, play sports and I know that you strangled that guy."

Tori rolled her eyes. "I told you, I strangled him because he died my hair green."

"Don't you think you over reacted?"

"How would you have reacted?" Tori asked.

Jeremy opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish, "that's not the point." He said.

"Why did you lead me on like that then?" Tori's voice shook as she spoke. "You could have stopped seeing me." She pursed her lips to keep the words 'dumb pig' from coming out.

"I dunno." Jeremy shrugged, looking every bit the dumb jock Tori now started to see him as. "I've never not had a girlfriend. You were just _there_."

Tori let out a hollow laugh as her eyes narrowed to slits. She turned and took a few small steps away from Jeremy before turning back around quickly. Then, impulsively, she swung her right arm, punching Jeremy hard in his left cheekbone.

'Ow,' Tori winced as she shook her stinging hand.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Jeremy said angrily as he held his hand over his cheek.

"That hurt me too." Tori said quietly, flexing her fingers.

"You really do act like a boy." Melanie said.

"Shut up." Tori hissed when the bell rang for the next class.

On her way to English, Tori blinked continuously to get rid of the tears from her eyes.


	15. Chapter 15

_**Chapt. 15**_

Tori wasn't upset because she'd just been dumped, but what Jeremy said kept playing over and over in her head. "Dating you is like dating one of my team mates." That comment struck Tori like a hammer to the head.

She couldn't help but think that she might always be considered one of the guys rather than the girlfriend.

Tori walked into class and, not wanting anyone to see her, sat down in a seat at the very back.

Alex took a glimpse at Tori and from where he was sitting it looked as though Tori had been crying. Her face was faintly red and shiny, like she'd just had water splashed on her. When Tori blinked and looked down Alex could see a tear sparkling in the corner of her eye.

"Quiet," Cloris hushed the chattering students at the front of the room. "For those who bothered to read up to chapter twelve, like I asked, what developments in the main character do we see so far?"

Cloris looked straight to Tori. Annoyed, Tori gritted her teeth and bent her head down to look at her book. She was getting tired of being singled out just because she was the only person in the class who'd actually read the book. Though it was probably the recent heartache that made Tori realize, or imagine, that annoyance.

Tori peeked back at Cloris to see that she appeared disappointed.

'There's over twenty _other_ students in this class,' Tori wanted to yell out.

Tori packed her bag before the bell went, as she'd learnt to do during her stay at the school.

When the bell went Tori stood up and out of her seat straightaway and paced towards the door.

"Miss Lockhart," Cloris picked Tori quickly from the group.

"What?" Tori snapped without facing the teacher. She was not in the mood for a lecture.

"Anything wrong?"

Tori's eyebrows heightened in surprise before she turned to face the English teacher.

"What do you mean?" Tori feigned like she didn't know what Cloris was talking about.

"You seem a little _off_." Cloris said, putting strong emphasis on the last word.

"I'm fine." Tori lied. "It's just the extra training Payne's been making me do." She left the room without hearing Cloris' reply.

Tori cringed when she realized that her next class was math.

She walked into the room to find Alicia already seated, and looking her normal bubbly self.

Tori, not wanting to be rude, sat next to Alicia but didn't say a word.

As she unpacked her bag, Tori could see from the corner of her eye that Alicia could tell that something was up.

"Hey what's up?" Alicia asked, almost too casually.

Tori didn't look at Alicia. "Nothing much." She played along. "You?"

"Come on," Alicia said with a disbelieving tone. "What hap…" Alicia stopped.

Tori looked to Alicia, whose sight froze at the front of the room. Tori followed her gaze to see Jeremy walking in, and sporting a highly visible, red and purple bruise where she had punched him.

Tori covered her mouth, causing Alicia to think she was shocked, when she started to laugh. She couldn't help it. Seeing Jeremy's pretty boy face marked with a bruise and knowing it was she that had done it almost made her day.

Jeremy walked past Tori without looking at her. He appeared very angry as he pursed his lips.

"Tori?" Said Alicia, thinking Tori was reacting rudely.

Tori cleared her throat and worked hard to keep a straight face. She thought of all people, Alicia should know what happened.

By the end of Tori's explanation Alicia was at a loss for words. Tori was now back to feeling depressed.

"Don't let a pathetic boy get you down Tori." Alicia sympathized.

"It's not the break up that I'm upset about." Tori explained.

"Well, what is it then?"

Tori hesitated. "Don't worry about it." She shook her head, wanting Alicia to forget about it.

"No, come on. Tell me."

Tori shook her head again and rubbed the bridge of her nose before speaking. "Do you think… boys see me as one of them?"

Alicia just stared blankly for a moment before scoffing. "Is that what Jeremy told you?"

"Sort of." Tori shrugged. "Well, do you?"

"No." Alicia said sincerely. "Only dumb jocks who date cheerleader types would think that."

Tori smiled for a split second. "I don't always act or dress like a boy anyway." She said, as though trying to make a point, what she should have said to Jeremy.

"I assure you, if you put on a dress and killer heels, heads are bound to turn."

"I don't think so." This time Tori scoffed. "I could say the same about you, though."

Alicia shook her head and rolled her eyes in disbelief. "We'll get him back." She said with great confidence.

*

The time finally came again for the six o'clock training session and by that time Tori was still not happy.

The whole military training session brought back her thoughts of being one of the boys.

Alex didn't mention that he thought Tori had been crying in English. Especially when she came up to him with an even fouler mood than usual. When he saw the expression on her face Alex was actually frightened of telling her the task of today.

"Um," he faltered as Tori glared at him, "you're going to have to do the log again." He said with an apologetic tone in his voice.

"Why?" Tori barked and Alex startled a little. "Why do we have to keep doing this?"

Tori didn't mean to snap, but she thought if she were to snap at anyone it might as well be Alex, or any other boy for that matter.

"Isn't it obvious that I'm not going to get it?"

"That's why you need to practice." Alex snapped back, not liking the way he was being spoken to.

Tori's eyes narrowed thinly and she turned to the deck.

Enveloping her arms around the rope, Tori swung from the deck and stepped onto the log. When her feet were steady on the log Tori let go of the rope.

When she stepped onwards, Tori placed her right foot on the edge of the log and slipped.

When she pushed herself onto her knees, Tori looked at the log as she nearly hyperventilated. She started smacking her right hand on the ground a numerous amount of times as every swear word known to man came out of her mouth.

As her hand started to sting, Tori stopped hitting the ground and stood up.

Sitting on the log, Tori studied her hand, which was now a glowing red. As tears flooded her eyes she was glad to be so far from Alex.

"Don't rest," He said from where he was standing.

Wiping her eyes, Tori got onto her feet and walked over to him.

"Do you have an icepack or something?" Tori asked, sounding like she had a cold.

Alex was taken aback when he realized Tori was crying. "Uh, " His eyes jolted to his bag. He looked through the bag and found a cold gel pack. "Here," he handed it to her.

Tori mumbled thanks and placed the pack over her hand.

"That look's like it hurts." Alex winced when he saw Tori's red palm. He also noticed the bruise on her wrist before Tori covered it with the pack.

"Just a little." Tori smiled for a second without looking at him.

"What happened to your wrist?" Alex asked curiously.

Tori looked up quickly. She shook her head quickly, "nothing. I slammed it in my trunk." She lied. Tori thought she was becoming better at making excuses.

"I saw that your boyfriend had a bruise on his cheek." Alex remembered, trying not to laugh.

Tori gritted her teeth as she looked back down at her wrist. "You can laugh. He's not my boyfriend." She said. "And that bruise you saw was a break up gift." She said almost proudly.

"What?" Alex covered his mouth to hide the smile.

"I don't wanna talk about it." Tori said.

Alex nodded and looked away to hide the disappointment on his face.

"Hey," Tori spoke again. Alex turned to her. "Um, never mind." Tori shook her head.

"What?" Alex wanted her to say what she was going to.

Tori sighed and smiled. "I wanna know something." She said. "But you can't laugh."

"Depends," Alex joked.

"Do you…" Tori ran her hands through her hair roughly, "do you think of me as your team mate or… as a girl?"

Alex's eyebrows heightened and he let out a laugh.

"I said you couldn't laugh." Tori got angry.

"I said it depends." Alex shot back.

"Well?" Tori still wanted an answer.

"I dunno, both I guess." Alex shrugged.

"What do you mean both?" Tori almost screamed.

"I think of you as a teammate but," Alex paused.

"But what?" Tori kept going.

"You're too pretty to be thought of as just a teammate." Alex panicked.

Tori's eyes widened as Alex covered his mouth and looked away.

"Wha…" Tori was at a loss for words. "But…"

"Uh," Alex couldn't look at Tori. "You can do a few laps while your hand is healing."

"O... kay." Tori said slowly, feeling confused, and put the gel pack into the bag. She kept looking at Alex hoping, for some reason, that he would look at her. When he didn't look back Tori started her first lap.

When he knew she'd started running Alex looked back at Tori. When she wasn't looking he kicked the bag angrily, stumping his toe on something hard.

"Idiot," he growled at himself, about what he said to Tori and for kicking the bag.


	16. Chapter 16

**_A/N - Hey readers. Lots of thanks. Just letting you know that I'm back at school so just beware that I may take longer to update my story, especially 'cause this is my last year of school._**

* * *

**_Chapt. 16_**

The next morning, after a rough night's sleep, Tori woke up with relief that the weekend was almost near. Two days without having to do JROTC training seemed like heaven as Tori struggled to pull herself out of bed.

After getting dressed Tori walked out of the changing room to find that Alex had just woken up. Alex looked at Tori for a split second before painfully jerking his head to the side.

The two had hardly uttered a word since Alex said that Tori were pretty.

Tori wanted to say something but thought it would be best not to remind him, especially after seeing how distant he got.

Alex walked out of the changing rooms as Tori started putting on her socks and shoes.

Tori looked up, from her black school shoes, and caught Alex's eye for a moment, giving him a kind smile before he quickly turned his attention to the ground and exited the barracks.

Sighing, Tori put the other shoe on and made her way to the chemistry lab.

She walked into the lab to find Jeremy sitting next to Melanie, who was in the seat where Tori normally sat. Melanie grabbed Jeremy's arm and smirked at Tori as Jeremy looked away to hide his bruised cheek.

Tori sat at the back of the room at a bench by herself.

As she gazed at the front of the class, Tori had a feeling Melanie was trying to tease her. Her feelings were answered when Melanie's tanned; manicured hand crawled over Jeremy's back. She then snuck a look over her shoulder at Tori.

Tori squeezed the pencil in her hand so hard it started to form an imprint in her hand. She loosened her grip on the pencil when she saw someone sit down beside her.

She turned to see Deak, with an annoyed look on his face, sitting down.

"How come you're sitting here?" Tori asked, her tone indicating that she didn't want him sitting so close to her.

"There are no more seats." Deak growled, not looking at Tori once as he spoke.

"Don't you normally sit with Alex?"

Tori looked to the desk beside her to see Alex seated near Fox. She made a presumption that one of them normally sat here next to whoever else sat at the back.

"Let me guess…" Tori said slowly. "You all played scissors-paper-rock to see who get's stuck sitting next me?" She rolled her eyes as she took her books out.

"No," Deak shook his head once, "we played whoever doesn't get a seat _there_," he nodded towards Alex and Fox, "sits _here_." He spoke as though he thought Tori were dim-witted.

Tori struggled to speak when Mr Whelan silenced the class and started to write notes onto the board.

As Tori kept looking to the front of the class she couldn't help but take a few peaks at Jeremy and Melanie. When Melanie's fingers brushed through Jeremy's hair Tori looked back down at her book, sneezing 'slut' loud enough for the front row to hear.

"What?" Deak and Alex whispered at the same time, having both heard what she'd said.

Tori's head bolted up, "huh?" she asked acting innocently. She turned to the front and knew that Melanie had just been looking at her.

When Tori looked down at her book, a scrunched up ball of paper suddenly landed on her page.

Tori pulled her head up for a clue of who chucked it and saw Melanie looking over her shoulder for a moment before turning her attention back to Jeremy.

Huffing, Tori unwrapped the crinkled paper to find a message:

_**Hey green boy,**_

_**Enjoying the show? Jealousy suits you about as much as that frizzy, green mass of hair on your head does.**_

Tori bit the inside of her cheek when, out of nowhere, she heard a snap. She looked to her right hand to find that she had snapped her pencil in half.

Deak's head jolted sideways as soon as he'd heard the snap, his eyes widening, when he saw the broken pencil, before narrowing in confusion.

"What…?" Just as Deak went to speak, Tori drew her right arm back quickly and flung both pieces of the pencil high in the air.

Both pencil halves landed in the centre of Melanie's head with two loud ping sounds.

"Ow!" As soon as Melanie exclaimed and touched the part of her head where the pencil had hit Tori looked down at her book and hastily pulled out a pen from her bag.

Alex, who had been watching Tori since hearing the pencil snap, turned his laugh into a cough as he observed Tori tussling with someone who wasn't in the squad.

Tori looked to her left when she heard Alex laugh and shook her head. She didn't want the teacher knowing she'd thrown the pencil.

"Mr Whelan!" Melanie screamed dramatically.

'It was just a pencil,' Tori thought, 'not a brick.'

"Green b- I mean Lockhart threw this pencil at me." Melanie dobbed, sounding like a third grade student.

"You can't prove it was me." Tori yelled, cringing when she realised how unbelievable she sounded.

"Come here Miss Lockhart." Whelan ordered. He pulled out a yellow slip from his draw and wrote something on it. "With your bag." He said before Tori walked towards him empty handed.

Tori packed her bag and, as the entire class looked on, stepped to the front.

Whelan folded the note and gave it to Tori. "Don't read it until you are out of my lab." He ordered.

Tori grabbed the note and turned slowly towards the door.

When the door shut behind her Tori opened the note and saw that only a room number and the teacher's signature written on it. Not knowing where that room was Tori took her time.

Tori ended up walking to the other end of the school before she found the room.

"You've got to be kidding me." Tori groaned to herself when she saw the sign besides the room number on the door.

Tori had been sent unknowingly to the councillor's office.

She did a couple of takes from the slip in her hand to the room number on the door until she was entirely convinced she was at the right place.

Pursing her lips, Tori knocked on the door, louder than she intended.

"Come in." Said a soft, feminine voice.

Tori opened the door to see the woman she'd met on her first day at the school. Tori felt a bit rude when she couldn't remember the woman's name. Her eyes searched the desk and found a nameplate that read 'Miss E. Walburn'.

"Miss Lockhart?" Miss Walburn said almost excitedly. "What are you here for?" cocked her eyebrows as she waited for Tori to say something.

"Uh," Tori stammered. "I got in trouble and was sent here."

"What could you have done to get sent to the councillor's office?"

"I threw a pencil at a girl's head." Tori let out a weak laugh at how weird that sounded. Miss Walburn's face went blank in confusion so Tori went further. "It's a long story." She sighed.

"Take a seat, Miss Lockhart." Walburn huffed, waving to the chair in front of the desk.

Tori chucked the heavy bag from her shoulder and sat down.

The room was filled with a length silence until Walburn spoke. "It's about a boy isn't it?"

Tori's eyes bugged for an instant before she nodded her head. "What made you guess?"

"I've been there before." Walburn said understandingly.

"It's not just the boy though. That girl who I threw the pencil at, Melanie, is just a…" Tori could only think of words she wasn't allowed to say in school. "Well, you know."

Miss Walburn paused and looked to be thinking. "You might want to tell me this _long story _of yours." Just as she said that the bell for next period rang. "Don't worry about that." She waved her hand. "I'll write you a note to give to your teacher."

Tori nodded and took a deep breath before going into the entire story.

When Tori finished explaining everything, including the part where Jeremy said dating her is like dating a teammate, Miss Walburn seemed to now understand everything.

"So you believe every boy is going to be like Jeremy?" She said, appearing somewhat dismissive.

Tori shook her head. "I guess not every boy." She said, remembering, with a smile, what Alex said yesterday. "But it just seems like all _everyone _thinks of me as is one of the boys or a teammate."

Walburn shook her head. "Don't let that thought stick in your head." She waved her hand over her head as though letting a thought go. "And don't think that the only thing you need to make you happy is a boyfriend."

Tori gave a sincere smile. "You're right." She huffed.

Walburn started to think again. "Is there anything or _anyone _else who might've caused you to think that?"

Tori knew the answer to that straightaway. "My mother."

*

The end of the day came slowly and Tori felt excitement for the upcoming weekend.

It was six o'clock and the squad, except for Alex and Tori, were making their way slowly and eagerly to the barracks as they, too, were looking forward to the weekend.

Alex would only look at Tori for a few seconds as he explained what she was going to do.

"You can do a few laps and then start on the monkey bars." He said.

Tori felt rather relieved when Alex said monkey bars instead of the log. Though she couldn't climb the monkey bars to save her life, Tori thought at least they're less painful to fall from.

She went to start her lap when she remembered something and turned back around to face Alex.

"Hey, Alex?" Tori said to try and get him to face her. He didn't look up she still continued. "About yesterday..." She pursed her lips as she figured out how to say what she wanted to. "Thank you." She said shortly. Finally Alex looked her straight in the eyes.

Tori had never noticed until that moment how nice his light blue eyes were to look at.

"What are you saying thank you for?" He asked.

Tori shrugged. "I've just… Not even my own parents have said something like that to me." She said. "Or at least since I hit puberty." She laughed.

Alex smiled genuinely. "It's fine." He didn't know what else to say.

Tori stared at him for a moment, biting her lip almost flirtatiously, before turning around to start her laps.


	17. Chapter 17

_**Chapt. 17**_

It was finally Saturday and Tori didn't wake up until ten-thirty. Her body still ached all over but she thought if she slept all day she wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

After wiping the sleep from her eyes, Tori got changed into a blue t-shirt and grey, knee-length jeans and tied her hair into a high ponytail. A smile grew on Tori's face when she saw the green in her hair had almost completely faded, only a few light streaks of green could be seen on the top of her head.

After putting on a pair of comfortable black scandals Tori huffed as she collapsed onto her bed, in realization that she had nothing to do. She was so bored that she wished the boys were there for someone to talk to, but remembered that today was Parent's Day and that the boys were probably outside with their families.

She lay down on the bed and shielded her eyes with her hands from the daylight.

"Your parents aren't coming either huh?" Tori heard a voice speak.

She bent her head up to see Alex standing at the door.

"Not that I know of." She said pushing herself up by her elbows. "Yours?"

Alex shook his head. "No one from the squad gets visits from their parents."

Tori placed her feet on the ground and stood up off of the bed.

"So, what's there to do on a weekend?" She huffed, placing her hands on her hips.

"When you're not dating dumb jocks?" Alex asked with a mocking grin.

Tori laughed. "When I'm not dating dumb jocks." She repeated as she mirrored his grin.

Tori looked at the window and her smile faded when she saw what was outside of the barracks.

Alex snapped his fingers in front of Tori's face when she seemed to be in a sort of trance. He followed her gaze to the window and saw a woman standing outside.

"Who…?" Alex went to ask whom that woman was when Tori answered for him.

"Mum?" She said to herself before rushing outside.

The boys were all sitting around the front of the barracks when Tori ran past. They all looked on as she paced closer to the woman. Alex walked outside slowly to see what was going on.

The woman seemed out of place amongst the other parents. She was decked out in a pink, summer dress under a white cardigan and had her feet in white, five-inch high heels, which dug into the grass with every step she took. Her brown hair was in a sleek bob that stopped just below her ears. The only thing that seemed out of place on her was the large, brown paper bag that she held in her right elbow.

"Mum?" She spoke, causing her mother to turn around.

A disgusted look appeared on Ms Foster's, Tori's mothers, face. Guessing it was because of the way she was dressed Tori rolled her eyes before talking again.

"What are you doing here?" Tori asked.

"Your father asked me to come here in his place." Ms Foster huffed.

Tori glowered at her mother. "Well, don't stay here on my account." She sneered. She turned to walk back to the barracks when she felt a hand lightly grab onto her elbow.

"Wait, sweetie." Her mother said.

Tori faced her mother again to hear what she was going to say.

"Your father was wrong to send you here."

Tori's expression softened. When she was about to say something her mother spoke again.

"I've got a better idea to help you."

Tori quickly became angry again. "Help me? What do I need help for?"

"That's not what I meant." Ms Foster waved her hand to dismiss what she'd said. "What do you think about _Debutant School_?" She gave Tori a wide smile as though she'd just had the greatest idea in the world.

Tori looked blankly at her mother for a moment before letting out a humorless laugh. "You're kidding me right?"

"No." Her mother answered. "I mean look at you." She pointed to the green streaks in Tori's hair.

"I didn't do this," Tori spat as she indicated to her hair, "If that's what you're thinking."

"It's not just that." Ms Foster said. "Do you really think _military school _is going to get you anywhere in life? This place is going to turn you into a boy."

That was the last thing Tori wanted to hear. "Look, I would leave this place. But there's these games coming up... and… I've been training to hard to give up now."

Ms Foster huffed disappointingly until she looked to her right. "Hey!" She screamed suddenly causing Tori to jump. "Yeah you, boy!" She said.

Tori led her eyes to where her mother was looking and, to her horror, saw Jeremy.

Ms Foster waved for Jeremy to come over. He looked extremely confused but complied.

'Of all the people.' Tori thought.

Jeremy appeared scared when he saw Tori and figured that the woman must've been her mother.

"C-can I help you?" Jeremy asked nervously.

"Not meaning you bother you," Tori's mother spoke almost flirtatiously. Tori tried not gag as her mother continued to speak. "But may I ask you, since you're a boy."

'You think?' Tori narrowed her eyes into slits.

"If she didn't have long hair and a nice face wouldn't you think she was a guy?" Tori's mouth widened angrily as her mother waited for an answer.

'She had to ask _him_.' She gritted her teeth.

"That's what I thought when we were dating." Jeremy said happily.

Ms Foster's eyes widened. "You two dated?" She asked.

"Can you just leave her alone?" A voice said from behind Tori, who turned to see Alex walking towards her. Alex looked somewhat frustrated.

Tori's anger turned to surprise.

"And who are you?" Ms Foster asked snobbishly.

Alex's face went blank. "That doesn't matter." He said awkwardly. "Just don't listen to this guy," he pointed with his thumb to Jeremy, "he treated your daughter like crap."

"Whether that is true or not that is none of your business." Ms Foster snapped. "I was only trying to make a point…"

"You know what mum?" Tori interrupted through gritted teeth. "You're done here."

"What?" Ms Foster seemed taken aback.

"Bye." Tori waved once before turning around.

"Wait!" She heard her mother yell. Tori faced her once more, with cocked eyebrows. "I brought these for you." Ms Foster held up the brown bag and pushed it into Tori's chest. "Incase you change your mind." She said, appearing quite crestfallen before finally leaving.

"I like your mum." Jeremy said after the lengthy silence.

Tori turned to Jeremy for seconds without saying a word before she walked back to the barracks. All eyes were on her as she strolled slowly towards the door.

Without looking at what was inside Tori chucked the bag, that her mother gave her, onto the top of her trunk before collapsing back onto her bed.

"You okay?" Tori heard Alex's now all too familiar voice speak.

Opening her eyes, Tori stared at Alex and nodded. She knew he wanted to say more as he fidgeted with his clothing.

"Parents, huh?" Tori let out a hollow laugh as she turned to look up at the ceiling. When she looked back at Alex he had a smile on his face, the smile didn't reach his eyes.

"What's in the bag?" Alex asked, thinking it would be best to avoid tough questions. For the time being anyway.

"I haven't looked yet." Tori groaned as she sat up.

Sliding on her backside to the foot of the bed, Tori placed the bag at her feet before looking inside it.

"Of course." Tori mumbled as she pulled out a white dress with prints of frangipanis over it.

"She got you a dress?" Alex asked disbelieving.

Tori let out another hollow laugh as she peeked through the bag again. "Not just a dress." She stood up and picked up the bag, tipping it so that its contents mounted on top of the bed.

The bed was covered in a sea of pink, purple, red and orange as a dozen or so dresses covered it.

"Wow," Alex breathed. "She's really… determined."

Tori giggled sincerely as she looked over the pile of dresses. "Some of these aren't too bad." She said when she picked up a purple spaghetti strap dress. "Well, not too bad for her tastes anyway."

Tori huffed and sat on the white dress that she had first picked up. "You know she only came here to send me to Debutant School?" She exclaimed, suddenly enraged.

"I heard her say that." Alex said quietly.

Tori looked at Alex and narrowed her eyes.

"I-I wasn't eavesdropping." Alex stuttered, holding his hands up defensively. "Your mum spoke pretty loudly."

"My parents are so weird." Tori covered her eyes with her hands in embarrassment.

Alex accidentally laughed at that. "You haven't met my step-father."

Tori smiled as she uncovered her eyes. "I guess you kinda saved me out there." She said as a sort of thank you.

"It's fine." Alex nodded before turning towards the door.

"Wait!" Tori almost yelled without thinking.

Alex startled prior to facing Tori again. "What?"

"Uh…" Tori stood up and found herself fidgeting with her fingers as she walked closer to Alex. "Did you… wanna go out to eat tomorrow or something?" The words sounded worse in the open air than they did when kept in Tori's head. "As a thanks."

"Yes." Alex said straightaway.

"Cool," Tori struggled to find anything better to say. "See you at eleven then?"

Alex nodded. He felt very lightheaded at that moment, but he didn't want to show it. Starting to feel fairly claustrophobic, he quickly stepped outside as he strained not to smile in front of the other cadets.


End file.
